Former D. W. Griffith child star Robert "Bobby" Harron, heading his own production company called Robert Harron Productions, signed a four-picture deal with Metro Pictures Corp., the 26 Jun 1920 Exhibitors Herald announced. His first film, based on a Howard E. Morton story published in Cosmopolitan Magazine several years earlier, would “bear the tentative title” Coincidence. Filming was set to take place at D. W. Griffith’s studio in Mamaroneck, NY, although some location work would be done around New York City, including a scene on a Fifth Avenue bus, as mentioned in the 8 May 1921 Wid’s Daily review of the film.
       According to the 3 Jul 1920 Wid’s Daily, Coincidence director Chet Withey was “now at work” at D. W. Griffith’s studio in Mamaroneck, NY. A month later, the 9 Aug 1920 Wid’s Daily reported that Withey was editing and titling Coincidence at Mamaroneck Studios. A 25 Oct 1920 release was scheduled.
       On 1 Sep 1920, Robert Harron shot himself in the chest with his own gun at the Hotel Seymour in New York City, where he was set to attend the premiere of his mentor D.W. Griffith’s Way Down East (1920, see entry). The Nov 1920 Motion Picture Classic called it a “tragic accident” in which a loaded pistol in one of the actor’s pockets discharged. He died several days later, on 5 Sep 1920, leaving his latest film project, The Brass Bowl, incomplete.
       Metro postponed the release of Coincidence for another six months, and the poster for the film, which ran on the cover of the 8 May 1921 Wid’s Daily, showed Harron’s image but did not mention his name. It boasted simply: “With an All-Star Cast.” Inside the trade paper, a review of Coincidence did not list cast members, and Harron, despite producing and starring in the film, was not mentioned by name until the third paragraph, and only once: “Robert Harron does good work as Billy Jenks.” Reviews in the 14 May 1921 Moving Picture World and 21 May 1921 Motion Picture News listed him in passing as the “late” Bobby Harron, although the former magazine suggested to theater owners to use his death as an “exploitation catchline” by touting the film as “the last comedy he ever made.” Only the 21 May 1921 Exhibitors Herald dealt directly with Harron’s death in its film review: “The average audience will get immediately the fact that it is unusual to have the principal part played by an unannounced actor, as has been in Harron’s case….In many similar cases pictures have played to increased receipts when it was known that it was the last of the star’s features.” The review in the 21 May 1921 Motion Picture News disagreed, saying that Harron’s “place on the screen was not secure enough to make most people remember him. It is safe to say that a majority have never heard of his death.”