Walter Long (5 March 1879-4 July 1952) was an American character actor in films from the 1910s. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He appeared in many D.W. Griffith films, notably The Birth of a Nation (1915), where he appeared as Gus, a Negro, in blackface make-up, and Intolerance (1916). But he is now best remembered for his roles in several Laurel and Hardy films in the 1930s as a comic villain. While his on-screen persona was crude and thuggish, in his private life he was well-dressed, intelligent, and personable, the complete antithesis of the characters he portrayed.

Walter Long of South Wraxall (c1712-1807), the great-great-great grandson of Sir Walter Long of South Wraxall and Draycot was born in Wiltshire, and had inherited along with other family estates, the 15th Century South Wraxall Manor. (This manor eventually devolved onto Walter, the 1st Viscount Long and having been finally sold by the Long family in the 1960's, after several hundred years of continuous ownership, was in 2004 purchased by John Taylor (bass guitarist) of the band Duran Duran.) His ancestors made their wealth initially as clothiers.

He lived till at least 93 years of age, dying at Bath in 1807, bequeathing the bulk of his fortune to the sons of his cousin, Richard Long of Rood Ashton, Wiltshire.

Walter Long JP, DL (10 October 1793 - 31 January 1867) was a British politician.

Born in Rood Ashton in Wiltshire, he was the son of Richard Godolphin Long and Florentina Wrey. Baptised on 18 November 1793, Long was educated in Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in 1812. He served in the Wiltshire Yeomanry, reaching the rank of Major and was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Wiltshire from 1835 to 1865. Long was Deputy Lieutenant for Surrey, for Montgomeryshire and for Wiltshire as well as Justice of Peace for Wiltshire. He died, aged 73 at Torquay in Devon and was buried in West Ashton, Wiltshire, near his home Rood Ashton House.

On 2 August 1819, he married firstly Mary Anne Colquhoun, daughter of Rt. Hon. Archibald Colquhoun in Easter Kilpatrick in Dunbartonshire. He married secondly Mary Anne Bickerton Hillyar, daughter of Rear-Admiral Sir James Hillyar in St George's Church in London on 15 April 1857. He had six children by his first wife, three daughters and three sons including Richard Penruddocke Long, and one son by his second wife, Lieutenant Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long who was involved in the siege at Lydenburg, South Africa, during the First Boer War. W.H.C Long, criticised for his handling of the siege, was later court-martialled and subsequently jumped to his death from a 4th floor window of the Grosvenor Hotel in London.

Walter Long JP (c.1648 – 16 Jul 1731) was a British politician.

The son of Walter Long (c.1623 - c.1699) and his wife Barbara Brayfield, he was elected Member of Parliament for Calne, Wiltshire in 1701 but lost his seat the following year to Edward Bayntun.

He was Sheriff of Wiltshire 1703-1704

His grandfather John Long (c1585-1636), was disinherited by his father, Sir Walter Long (1565-1610) of South Wraxall and Whaddon, by the contrivances of the latter's second wife Catherine nee Thynne (a daughter of the first Sir John Thynne of Longleat) but a compromise later led John to receiving South Wraxall, and his brother the manor of Draycot. South Wraxall eventually passed to Walter Long, who died unmarried in 1731. He is buried at South Wraxall, Wiltshire.

References

• A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, from September 1678 to April 1714 - Narcissus Luttrell 1857
• A Chronological Register of Both Houses of the British Parliament - Robert Beatson 1807

Child: John Huntley Long

Shaven-headed tough guy actor who appeared in many D.W. Griffith films (once notoriously as a Negro villain in Birth of a Nation, The (1915), in blackface make-up),but is perhaps now best remembered as a scowling comic villain in several Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy films.

Served as Captain of the Military Police during World War II in Washington DC and Virginia.