Dog Stars: who was the first canine screen hero?

As dogs take over the screens - and the red carpet - in Cannes, we look back at the pooches that paved the way.

May 16, 2024

The first celebrity at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (14-25 May) walked the red carpet in a beautiful black-and-white fur coat, projecting that cool confidence that only comes from experience. Border collie Messi played a pivotal role in last year’s Palme d’Or-winning film – French thriller, Anatomy of a Fall. He’s back for an encore, readying to host TV interviews and TikToks (we’re not kidding).

Messi marks a bit of a canine takeover at Cannes this year. Several films feature dogs, including the highly anticipated Dog on Trial, which is loosely based on a real-life French courtroom trial about a dog that kept biting strangers, and Black Dog, which tells the story of clearing China’s streets of stray dogs in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

As these new canine actors prepare to grace our screens, we wanted to know…

Who was the first dog star?

To find out we have to go way back, past Benji, Lassie and Toto, to the earliest days of cinema when British director Cecil Hepworth put his family pet, a collie called Blair, in the 1905 thriller Rescued by Rover. Amateur actor Blair played the loyal hero who saved a kidnapped baby - alongside cinema’s first two paid actors. The film was so popular that the negatives wore out from overprinting, and Hepworth had to reshoot the film twice!

Blair’s character popularised the name ‘Rover’ for dogs in the UK and US.

Blair may have been the first dog on screen, but over the Atlantic the first pooch who played a leading role with her name in the film’s titles was ‘Jean the Vitagraph Dog’. Jean was also a collie, and she starred in several early silent films produced by Vitagraph Studios in New York from 1910, including Jean the Match-maker where she introduces two “peachy” girls to two shy farmers.

You better work, bitch! Jean was as popular as her human co-stars.

However, if we’re talking the first dog with real Hollywood star power, it has to be one of cinema’s early superheroes, Rin Tin Tin.

Story has it, the famous German Shepherd was discovered in 1918 by US serviceman Lee Duncan in a bombed-out kennel on a battlefield in France. Duncan brought ‘Rinty’ and his sister Nanette back to California and began to train them. Rinty was discovered performing at an LA dog show four years later, and by 1926, he was the biggest box-office star in the world. He appeared in nearly 30 films starting with The Man from Hell’s River and is credited with saving Warner Bros. studios from bankruptcy.

Rinty received bags of fan mail. Publicists replied with a photo and paw print!

Rinty had at least 48 pups in his lifetime, three of which went to Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and WK Kellogg (yes, the cereal guy).

Greta Garbo with a German Shepherd, 1931.

Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend, said, “I just thought he was a cool dog, then I watched his silent films and you are kind of taken aback. He is a really good actor. He had charisma. He had a real presence on film. I think the proof is in the statistics when you appreciate how many other dogs there were in films at the time and how many of them we remember. It is kind of a statement of his ability to project something special.”

Who’s your favourite screen dog? Bruiser, Marley, Verdell… which pooch stole the show? Let us know in comments.

If you need a little inspiration…

Did you know Cannes has its very own pup awards? It’s called the Palm Dog (or Palm D’og!) and it honours the best canine performances as decided by a panel of international film critics.

Tilda Swinton’s three springer spaniels won in 2021, and she collected the award on their behalf saying, “I have to tell you honestly, this is the prize to get. We’ve been eyeing it for years.” Messi, from the start of this article, won it last year.