[4] Changing his name from the unmistakably German "Kaiser" at the onset of World War I, he rose quickly in his field, becoming "the Clark Gable of the [1920s].

[3] Kerry made his first film appearance in the 1916 comedy Manhattan Madness, starring Douglas Fairbanks and directed by Allan Dwan.

[7][6] He again appeared with Mary Pickford in 1918, in Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, and that in turn led to his being chosen by Constance Talmadge as her leading man in Up the Road with Sallie.

[6] In 1920, he was paid a salary of $750 per week[14] and by 1930 he had been under contract with Universal Pictures for twelve years and was thought to be among the actors who had played the most roles in his career.

[15] He wore a fancy waxed mustache and slicked-back hair, exemplifying the "tall, dark, and handsome" matinee idol of the time.

[7][6] In 1923, he starred in two of his most popular films, the enormous box-office success The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with Lon Chaney and Patsy Ruth Miller and the controversial Merry-Go-Round, opposite Mary Philbin.

[7] That same year Kerry starred with Philbin in the melodrama Fifth Avenue Models[18] and with Patsy Ruth Miller in the adventure film Lorraine of the Lions.

[20] By the end of the decade, he had appeared in high-profile roles opposite Anna Q. Nilsson,[21][22][23] Marion Davies,[24] Bebe Daniels,[25] Mildred Harris,[26] Lillian Gish,[27] and Claire Windsor,[28][29] among others.

At the beginning of the talkie era, Kerry reunited with Mary Philbin to film talking scenes for The Phantom of the Opera, reissued with sound 15 Dec 1929.

[44][45][9] In 1917, despite having already achieved some success in the motion picture industry, Kerry enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps and was to report for training in Toronto, Canada in September of that year,[46] with a commission as a lieutenant.

[48] In 1918, he served briefly (October 2 to December 4) in the U.S. Army,[49] returning to Los Angeles and his film career by the end of that year.

[50] Kerry had been living in a Los Angeles hotel in June 1917[36] but by the end of the year, he took up residence in a bungalow in Hollywood, where he was joined by his mother and sister.

[73] He explained to Helen, who ultimately acquiesced in his decision, that he owed it to the French, whose hospitality he had been enjoying, and that he had been dissatisfied with the shallowness of his life as an actor; he wanted to have "real experiences, not just make-believe.

[3] At the age of 61, on 12 Jan 1956, Norman Kerry died from a liver ailment at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California.