# Tom Santschi

Paul William "Tom" Santschi (October 24, 1880 – April 9, 1931) was an American leading man and character actor of the silent film era.

## Personal life

Santschi was born in Missouri to Paul Santschi, a Swiss immigrant, and Margaret Kern, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. The family later moved to Kokomo, Indiana. Paul left home to pursue a career in moviemaking (as Tom Santschi), and at the time he registered for the draft in 1918, he was working for the Goldwyn Motion Picture Corporation in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

## Career

Santschi acted in over 245 films during the period 1907–1931, and directed 28 films during 1914–1916. He wrote one screenplay in 1914. A 1915 two-reeler, In the King's Service, in which he starred with Marion Warner, surfaced at a yard sale in Maine, and was shown along with The Spoilers (1914) at a Northeast Historic Film Festival at Bucksport, Maine in 2002.

## Partial filmography
### Actor

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1909 | Fighting Bob | | $^{:81}$ |
| 1909 | A Country Girl's Peril | | $^{:81}$ |
| 1909 | The Heart of a Race Tout | | $^{:82}$ |
| 1909 | In the Sultan's Power | | |
| 1909 | Mephisto and the Maiden | | |
| 1909 | Ben's Kid | | |
| 1909 | On the Border | | |
| 1909 | Up San Juan Hill | | |
| 1909 | Faust | | |
| 1910 | Across the Plains | | |
| 1910 | Davy Crockett | | |
| 1910 | Mazeppa | | |
| 1910 | The Sergeant | | |
| 1910 | Pride of the Range | | |
| 1911 | Kit Carson's Wooing | | |
| 1911 | The Heart of John Barlow | | |
| 1912 | The Count of Monte Cristo | Danglars | as William T. Santschi |
| 1912 | A Broken Spur | Ed Harvey | |
| 1912 | A Crucial Test | Bill Wildern | |
| 1912 | Euchered | Tom Saunders | |
| 1913 | The Adventures of Kathlyn | Bruce | |
| 1913 | Alas! Poor Yorick | Hamlet McGinnis | |
| 1913 | In the Long Ago | Indian Warrior | |
| 1913 | Wamba, a Child of the Jungle | Portuguese Pete | |
| 1914 | The Spoilers | Alex McNamara | |
| 1915 | The Lion's Mate | Hamad | |
| 1916 | The Crisis | Stephen Brice | |
| 1916 | The Country That God Forgot | Steve Brant | |
| 1917 | Beware of Strangers | John Mentor | |
| 1917 | Who Shall Take My Life? | "Big Bill" O'Shaughnessy | |
| 1918 | The Hell Cat | Jim Dyke | |
| 1918 | The City of Purple Dreams | Daniel Fitzhugh, the derelict | |
| 1918 | The Still Alarm | Jack Manley | |
| 1918 | Little Orphant Annie | Dave | |
| 1919 | The Love That Dares | Perry Risdon | |
| 1919 | The Railroader | Clive Standish | |
| 1919 | The Stronger Vow | Pedro Toral | |
| 1919 | Shadows | Jack McGoff | |
| 1919 | Eve in Exile | John Sheen | |
| 1920 | Sagebrush Musketeers | | Short |
| 1921 | Sheriff of the Mojave | | Short |
| 1921 | The Death Trap | | Short |
| 1921 | The Desert Wolf | | Short |
| 1921 | Lorraine of the Timberlands | | Short |
| 1921 | Mother o' Dreams | | Short |
| 1921 | The Honor of Rameriz | Rameriz | Short |
| 1921 | The Spirit of the Lake | | Short |
| 1921 | The Heart of Doreon | Doreon | Short |
| 1921 | The Secret of Butte Ridge | | Short |
| 1922 | Two Kinds of Women | Bud Lee | |
| 1923 | Is Divorce a Failure? | Smith | |
| 1923 | Thundering Dawn | Gordon Van Brock | |
| 1923 | Tipped Off | Dan Grogan | |
| 1924 | The Plunderer | Bill Presbey | |
| 1924 | Little Robinson Crusoe | Captain Dynes | |
| 1925 | Beyond the Border | Nick Perdue | |
| 1925 | The Night Ship | Captain Jed Hobbs | |
| 1925 | Paths to Paradise | Callahan | |
| 1926 | Siberia | Alexis Vetkin | |
| 1926 | My Own Pal | August Deering | |
| 1926 | Her Honor, the Governor | Richard Palmer | |
| 1926 | The Hidden Way | Bill | |
| 1926 | 3 Bad Men | "Bull" Stanley | |
| 1926 | Jim the Conqueror | Sam Black | |
| 1926 | The Desert's Toll | Jasper | |
| 1926 | The Third Degree | Daredevil Daly | |
| 1926 | No Man's Gold | | |
| 1927 | When a Man Loves | Captain of the convict boat | |
| 1927 | Tracked by the Police | Sandy Sturgeon | |
| 1927 | The Adventurous Soul | Captain Svenson | |
| 1927 | Eyes of the Totem | Philip La Rue | |
| 1927 | Old San Francisco | Captain Stoner | |
| 1927 | Hills of Kentucky | Ben Harley | |
| 1928 | Land of the Silver Fox | Butch Nelson | |
| 1928 | The Law and the Man | Dan Creedon | |
| 1928 | Vultures of the Sea | | |
| 1929 | In Old Arizona | Cowpuncher | |
| 1929 | The Wagon Master | Jake Lynch | |
| 1930 | River's End | Shotwell | |
| 1930 | The Utah Kid | Butch | |
| 1931 | Ten Nights in a Barroom | Simon Slady | |
| 1931 | The Phantom of the West | Bud Landers | |
| 1931 | King of the Wild | Harris | |

### Director

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1910 | The Sanitarium | |
| 1914 | Caryl of the Mountains | |
| 1915 | The Heart of Paro | |
| 1915 | The Octopus | Also screenwriter |
| 1915 | His Fighting Blood | |
| 1915 | The Blood Seedling | |
| 1915 | A Sultana of the Desert | |
| 1915 | The Lion's Mate | |