No Terre Haute native has appeared in more motion pictures than Edward Roseman.

Independent research and efforts by several cinema anthologists have fixed the number of motion pictures he made at 62.

That's more than other noted Terre Haute natives, such as Richard "Skeets" Gallagher (60), Scatman Crothers (51), Ross Ford (41), Chubby Johnson (41), Rose Melville (21) or Joe Keaton (15). Even Alvy Moore (55), Burl Ives (36) and Valeska Suratt (11), also identified with the city, cannot match Roseman's total.

That number is certain to climb because many silent films are not catalogued. "The House of Secrets," released in 1929, was Roseman's last movie and his only "talkie."

In 1928, Roseman starred on stage in "A Free Soul" at the Playhouse Theater on West 48th Street in New York, which had at least 100 performances. The next year he headed the cast in "The Street Wolf" at the Garrick Theater on Broadway.

Then he abruptly disappeared from the theatrical landscape.

Elizabeth DeDell, of Marcellus, N.Y., offers an explanation: "He married my mother's sister, Sophia Anderson, and they had a child, David. Aunt Sophia did not want to live in California, but that's where all the sound movies were being made. Our family lived in upstate New York -- Syracuse -- so Uncle Edward quit the movies in about 1930 and moved to Syracuse."

It was a financial sacrifice, but Roseman did not complain. "Edward was a wonderful man," DeDell, who will be 90 next month, recalls. "He met Sophia at a party in New York. She modeled gloves and shoes. Both of them said it was love at first sight."

"I lived with Aunt Sophia and Uncle Edward in the early '30s. He worshiped his family. He was tall with beautiful brown eyes, a deep voice and liked to read poetry."

"He didn't say much about his career but, occasionally, you could get him to talk about some of the people he worked with," a list which included Mae West, Norma Shearer, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Theda Bara and W.C Fields.

"He showed me his make-up kit," she added. "I think he did his own make-up."

That assertion is confirmed by a feature story about Roseman in the May 1921 issue of "Movie Weekly," where he is referred to as "The Master of Make-up." In the 1920 Fox horror serial, "Fantomas," he played the title role with at least four personas: a woman peddler, a bearded old man, a rough-house crook and a"respectable villain."

Roseman was called "A Man of a Thousand Faces" before that label was attached to the immortal Lon Chaney after his back-to-back horror hits, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) and "Phantom of the Opera" (1925).

Anyone trying to follow Roseman's career confronts obstacles, however. The oldest child of Henry H. and Mary Lucinda (Wall) Roseman, he was born on May 14, 1875 at the southeast corner of Fifth and Eagle streets.

Edward was a stage name. His given name was Ernest Frederick.

Henry Roseman was a Terre Haute pharmacist. By 1878, he owned his own drug store at 312 Ohio Street and the family lived at 927 S. Fourth St. Tragically, Henry died of tuberculosis on June 11, 1882, at age 31.

Mary Roseman raised "Ernest," his sister Jennie May and his brother Henry Dunham, who was called "Harry," on South Fourth Street and continued to live there for awhile after she married Hansbrough Weeks on Jan. 25, 1888.

Eventually, the Weeks moved to Pimento, where Mary died on Oct. 8, 1921. She was buried next to her first husband at Woodlawn Cemetery.

By that time, Roseman had compiled impressive credentials in vaudeville, as a touring stock company actor for playwrights Lincoln J. Carter, Wright Lorimer and others. He made 44 silent films between 1913 and 1921.

"The Partners," Roseman's first movie released in 1913, was produced by Eclair, a French film company with studios in Fort Lee, N.J.

"Before he got into theater he worked for a railroad," DeDell offered. "But I can't remember its name or where he worked. He was married to an actress before he married Aunt Sophia, but she died in a fire. He didn't talk to me about it, but Sophia told me."

"Somewhere I have an old newspaper photo of Edward and his first wife when they were in Terre Haute to appear together on stage."

Roseman's film credits include "The Governor's Boss" (1915), written by Terre Haute playwright James S. Barcus; "The Slave" (1917), starring Suratt; and "On the Banks of the Wabash" (1923), featuring Paul Dresser's background music.

Roseman did not visit Terre Haute much after his mother died, DeDell asserted. Son David, born March 3, 1923, still resides in Syracuse as does grandson Daniel.

Almost invariably, Edward played "a heavy" in movies such as "At the Crossing" (1914), "Adrift" (1914), "When Broadway was a Trail" (1914), "The Pit" (1914), "The Avalanche" (1915), "The Labyrinth" (1915),"The Barrier" (1917,"The Wasp" (1918),"The Liar" (1918), "The Embarrassment of Riches" (1918), "The American Way" (1919), "Bride 13" (1919), "A Scream in the Night" (1919), "The Face at Your Window" (1920), "The Broken Violin" (1923), "America" (1924) and "Running Wild" (1927).

Sophia's father, William Anderson, a native of Sweden, managed the bakeries in all A & P grocery stores in Syracuse and Edward accepted a job in maintenance. Within a few years, he was the department manager.

Edward Roseman died on Sept. 16, 1957, at age 82, after a year's illness, and is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Syracuse.