AFI Catalog of Silent Films Available to Purchase

It is impressive to consider the many great directors, actors and actresses who existed solely in the silent era or who got their start during those early years of cinema. The dashing Rudolph Valentino, the athletic Douglas Fairbanks and the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney, were all stars of the silent film era. Even later stars we associate with the sound (talkies) era like Jean Harlow and Greta Garbo made their debuts in silent film. D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille and Josef von Sternberg all directed early silent masterpieces.

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