Kelly’s father owned a saloon, Kelly's Kafe, in the shadow of Vitagraph Studios, on E. 14th St. in Midwood, Brooklyn. Studio hands drank their lunch at Kelly's, and the barkeep's wife convinced a casting assistant to help her son get a foot in the door. He was a cute kid, with red hair and a Celtic face that looked like a map of Ireland. In no time he went from a $5-a-day extra to featured juvenile roles in silent comedy shorts.
Young Kelly appeared in dozens of shorts from 1910 to 1916 - titles like "Jimmie's Job," "Billy's Pipe Dream" and "Cutie Tries Reporting." He matured into a handsome man - tall and athletic with a thick auburn mop. Kelly moved to Los Angeles and graduated to adult roles just before the film industry began its shift to Talkies, in 1927.
Kelly was part of a fast-moving, heavy-drinking crowd that included actor Dorothy Mackaye and her husband, Ray Raymond. Soon, Kelly and Mackaye developed a habit of sneaking off together until dawn. Raymond warned Kelly to stay away from his wife. But Kelly showered Mackaye with love notes and finally declared his love for Mackaye to Raymond.
On April 16, 1927, a drunk Kelly confronted a drunk Raymond in front of the Raymonds’ maid and daughter. According to the maid, Raymond was no match for Kelly who bashed Raymond's head against a wall until he fell unconscious. Mackaye arrived home to tuck her groggy husband into bed. The next morning, Mackaye called a friend, Dr. Walter Sullivan, who sat at Raymond's bed while she visited Kelly. Raymond lingered for two days then succumbed to a brain hemorrhage. Mackaye tried to convince police that Raymond had died of natural causes. But the maid told the truth. Kelly was charged with first-degree murder, Mackaye with felony coverup.
The trial was a national spectacle. Mackaye denied the affair, but the actor's houseboy confirmed their trysts and the police found a stack of Kelly's love letters found tucked in her mattress. Kelly admitted his love and tried to portray the fight as a duel, not a murder. But the jury handed down a manslaughter conviction. Kelly got one to 10 years, Mackaye one to three for the coverup. She served less than 10 months, Kelly just over two years.
In 1931, they got married and were back on Broadway. Then they returned to California, where they raised Valerie Raymond as Mimi Kelly, who would later have her own modest Broadway career.
Mackaye wrote a play, "Women in Prison," based on her own experiences, that became a 1933 film, "Ladies They Talk About," with Barbara Stanwyck. She died in 1940, at age 40, when she rolled her car while driving home one night.
Kelly continued as one of America's busiest actors, appearing in more than 100 films - often as a cop, soldier or gangster - from 1932, when he made his Talkie debut, to the mid-1950s. He made periodic returns to Broadway, winning a Tony for his work in the war drama "Command Decision" in 1947.
By one count, Paul Kelly's credits included more than 400 film, stage and TV roles. But like his wife and her first husband, he did not enjoy a long life. He died of a heart attack at age 56 on Nov. 6, 1956.