At age 19 in 1894, before his Broadway career took off, Courtenay appeared in Alexander Black's slide show Miss Jerry.

This was a sort of alternative entertainment to a new device by Thomas Edison called a Kinetoscope à la moving pictures.

A tall, handsome leading man Courtenay appeared in plays with Richard Mansfield, e.g., a revival of Beau Brummel and the American premiere of Cyrano de Bergerac as well as productions produced by Charles Frohman.

Still handsome and quite famous as an actor he worked for such studios as William A. Brady's World Pictures, Vitagraph and most of all Pathe.

His penultimate sound film Three Faces East with Constance Bennett is restored and on Warner on-demand DVD.