Robert Emmett Harron (April 12, 1893 – September 5, 1920)[1] was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era.

Born in New York City, Harron was second oldest child of nine siblings in a poor, working-class Irish Catholic family.

[2] At the age of fourteen, he found work as an errand boy at American Biograph Studios near Union Square in Manhattan to help support his family.

[9] Harron is probably best recalled for his roles in the three epic Griffith films: 1914's Judith of Bethulia, opposite Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, and Dorothy and Lillian Gish; 1915's controversial all-star cast The Birth of a Nation; and 1916's colossal multi-scenario Intolerance opposite such popular stars of the era as Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Wallace Reid, Harold Lockwood and Mildred Harris.

One of Harron's most popular roles of the era came in 1919 when he starred opposite Lillian Gish in the Griffith directed romantic film True Heart Susie.

Harron's film career continued to flourish throughout the 1910s, and he was occasionally paired with leading actresses Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish with romantic plots, often in roles that cemented his "sensitive boy" image.

Harron checked into the Hotel Seymour on September 1 with his friend, screenwriter and director Victor Heerman, with whom he was sharing a room.

While he was being treated, Harron was arrested for possessing a firearm without a permit under the Sullivan Act and placed in the hospital's prison ward.

There was speculation that Harron was disappointed over being passed over for the leading role in Way Down East (Richard Barthelmess was ultimately cast).

On the night of the shooting, Harron said he had gone to retrieve the trousers from his suitcase to have them pressed when the gun fell out onto the floor and discharged.

Victor Heerman rejected this theory because Harron, a teetotaler and virgin, was a devout Catholic who would have deemed suicide a mortal sin.

Cooper and Gish also believed Harron would not have attempted suicide as he was his family's major source of income and had plans to start shooting a new film with Elmer Clifton.