The Elephant's Graveyard
This is a list of people who started their careers in serials, silent films, shorts or features, for minor or major studios. They all eventually ended up in television, where they ended their careers.
Outside the US, it is more common for filmmakers to move freely between the two mediums. It is only in the 21st century that filmmakers in the US have moved freely back and forth between the two mediums. Many television directors also work in made for TV films or low budget independent film.
Filmmakers such as R.G. Springsteen, Wiilliam Witney, and Phil Karlson, who ended up in television but also continued to regularly direct films, are not included in this list. Every "elephant" on this list has a point in their career where television becomes the "graveyard" they end their lives in, a term Christopher Wicking and Tise Vahimagi coined in their TV director book The American Vein, whose list of the same name forms the basis of this one.
Outside the US, it is more common for filmmakers to move freely between the two mediums. It is only in the 21st century that filmmakers in the US have moved freely back and forth between the two mediums. Many television directors also work in made for TV films or low budget independent film.
Filmmakers such as R.G. Springsteen, Wiilliam Witney, and Phil Karlson, who ended up in television but also continued to regularly direct films, are not included in this list. Every "elephant" on this list has a point in their career where television becomes the "graveyard" they end their lives in, a term Christopher Wicking and Tise Vahimagi coined in their TV director book The American Vein, whose list of the same name forms the basis of this one.
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- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
William Beaudine, the director of nearly 350 known films (nearly one for every day of the year; some listings of his work put his output at 500 movies and hundreds of TV episodes) and scores of television episodes, enjoyed a directing career that stretched across seven decades from the 'Teens to the '70s (he also was a screenwriter, credited on 26 films and one TV series). His movies, ranging from full-length features to one- and two-reel shorts, included the notorious Mom and Dad (1945) of 1945--the Gone with the Wind (1939) of the hygiene/exploitation genre--for infamous producer Kroger Babb, one of the notorious "Forty Thieves" of the exploitation circuit. His final, as well as very likely best-known, films were the grind-house/drive-in horror classics Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966) (in 1966, when he made these two cheapies, he was the oldest active director in Hollywood, at 74). Beaudine was prolific not only because he mastered efficient filmmaking but also because he started in the early days of the film industry, when one- and two-reelers were ground out like sausages, and that's how he learned to make them. Although he was responsible for some prestigious pictures in the silent era--i.e., Mary Pickford's Sparrows (1926)--after 1937 he worked primarily churning out programmers at Poverty Row studios. When producers needed an efficiently-made potboiler shot on a two-week (or less) schedule, William Beaudine was the go-to guy, and he remained so through the mid-'60s.
William Washington Beaudine was born January 15, 1892, in New York City, an advantageous location for a tyro filmmaker at the turn of the last century, because the original "Hollywood" of America was located in nearby Ft. Lee, NJ (Thomas A. Edison, the inventor of the first motion picture production device and, more importantly, holder of several of its most important patents, was headquartered there. The patent monopoly he helped found did not want filmmakers operating too far away, as it wanted to oversee the industry to ensure it did not use pirated equipment that infringed its patents. California arose as a major production center in the 'Teens because it was far away from the prying eyes of the Edison trust, which was not averse to hiring thugs to wreck the equipment and beat up the employees of companies that defied it). Beaudine started in the industry as a $10-per-week prop boy, factotum and extra in 1909 with American Mutoscope and the Biograph Co., where he first worked with D.W. Griffith, the father of the American film. He began appearing as an actor in Mack Sennett's Biograph films in 1912 and continued to work behind the camera while appearing in front of it in 44 films through 1915. From 1911-14 he was an assistant director or second-unit director on 55 movies. He wed Marguerite Fleischer in October 1914 (they remained married until his death in 1970), the same year he moved to California. Although hired by the Kalem Co. as an actor, he got his first chance to direct while working on the studio's "Ham and Bud" comedy series in 1915. He directed at least five films in 1915, and served as an assistant to Griffith on his seminal masterpiece The Birth of a Nation (1915) and its follow-up, the aptly named Intolerance (1916). By 1916 Beaudine was making $100 per week as a director, and turned out as many as 150 short comedies before graduating to feature film assignments in 1922. Beaudine, like fellow director John Ford, was known for "editing in the camera", i.e., shooting only those scenes that are absolutely necessary, which saved time and raw stock. He did not shoot full coverage of scenes, with master shots and alternate takes (his contemporary William A. Wellman, another master of editing in the camera, did Beaudine--who was known as "One-Shot"--one better as "Two-Shot"--he would film two shots of a scene in case one was ruined in the developing lab), but no more than what he knew was necessary, and since he worked almost exclusively on low-budget "quickies" for the last 30 years of his career (he directed over half of the Bowery Boys films), producers valued him for his ability to make pictures quickly and economically, despite the gaffes (which likely would not be noticed by the audiences for these movies anyway). His attitude towards most of the films he was shooting at the time can be summed up by an incident in the 1940s, when he was informed that an East Side Kids quickie he was making for Monogram was falling behind schedule. His reply was, "You mean someone out there is actually waiting to see this . . . ?".
Beaudine churned out low-budget films by the gross, in a wide variety of genres. That's why it may be difficult for some to believe that, in the silent days, he was one of the more respected directors in the industry, and had established himself as a seasoned comedy director with a light but sure touch for such major studios as Goldwyn, Metro, First National and Warner Bros. He was renowned for his skill at working with children, which won him two assignments directing films for Mary Pickford at United Artists: Little Annie Rooney (1925) and the above-mentioned "Sparrows", a Gothic suspense thriller that is an ur-The Night of the Hunter (1955) (it reportedly influenced "Hunter" director Charles Laughton). Beaudine's finest silent film is generally considered to be The Canadian (1926), based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham.
By the time talkies arrived, Beaudine was a top director in Hollywood, his salary increasing from $1,250 a week in 1925 to $2,000-$2,500 a week in 1926. For directing the "Izzy and Mike" (Jewish/Irish comedy) The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris (1928) in 1928, he earned $20,000 (approximately $215,000 in 2006 terms), which was not bad considering the speed at which he turned out his films. Even after the Great Depression hit in 1929, as late as 1931 Beaudine was commanding $2,000 a week. Unfortunately, like many other Americans, he was heavily leveraged in the stock market and was virtually wiped out by the Crash of '29. He moved to England in 1935 and directed more than a dozen films there before returning to the US. Once home, however, he discovered that during his absence Hollywood got along just fine without him, and he couldn't find a job for two years. When he was finally offered work it was near the bottom of the Hollywood food chain, at low-rent studios like Monogram or PRC. By 1940 his once flourishing career had declined to the point that, where he had once commanded $2500 a week, he was now lucky to get jobs paying $500 a picture, and was turning out bottom-of-the-double-bill films like Desperate Cargo (1941) and the The Ape Man (1943). The lowest point of his career is generally considered to be the aforementioned "Mom and Dad" for Kroger Babb (an independent producer who often released through Monogram, for whom Beaudine did much work). "Mom and Dad" was a "hygiene" picture, featuring footage of a live birth, that Babb "four-walled" in territories across the U.S. ("four-walling" was the practice of renting an entire theater outright, which meant that after the rental fee was paid, all money taken in went to the exhibitor). Babb was a master showman, and his practice of having screenings for males and females at separate times, and providing a "doctor" and two "nurses" (who were in reality actors) to give a hygiene lecture and sell sex hygiene books at inflated prices (the money being collected by the "nurses", who ostensibly were there lest anyone faint from such a frank divulging of "the facts of life") was a masterful touch, capitalizing on the extreme sexual repression of the era to titillate and make a barrel full of money while doing it. These tactics were also helpful in keeping local authorities at bay--after all, who could close down a theater that showed such an "educational" film?
Some cinema historians say that "Mom and Dad" may well have been, on a return-on-investment basis, the most profitable film in history, grossing as much as $100 million. Babb later recounted that each one of his investors got back $63,000 for each $1,000 invested in the film. In a pre-"Kinsey Report" world filled with ignorance and misinformation--deliberate and otherwise--about biology and sex, "Mom, and Dad" filled a void and turned a handsome profit while doing so (it was playing at drive-ins in the South and Midwest at least until 1977, long after the sexual revolution of the "Swinging Sixties", so potent was the "birth of a baby" come-on to the rural audiences for whom it was made). "Mom and Dad" was likely the top-grossing picture of 1947. The film was so heavily promoted that "Time" magazine commented that the ad campaign "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Until the advent of The Blair Witch Project (1999), many film historians regarded "Mom and Dad" as the purest and most successful exploitation film in history.
By the end of the 1940s Beaudine had churned out 60 movies. Still, he was regarded highly enough as a man who could make a movie quickly and efficiently to command a salary of $3,000 per week for The Lawton Story (1949), an adaptation of a Passion Play staged in Lawton, OK (which was re-released in 1951 by Babb's Hallmark company). His paced slowed somewhat in the 1950s, when he made only 23 films, most of them for Allied Artists (formerly Monogram). A quarter-century after directing superstar Mary Pickford, Beaudine was reduced to piloting a washed-up, drug-addicted former Dracula and two Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis clones in the pathetic Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952), with Lugosi, Duke Mitchell (the Martin clone) and Sammy Petrillo (the Lewis clone). In the "plot", Mitchell is turned into--what else?--a singing gorilla. Beaudine, who had worked with Lugosi in 1943's "The Ape Man" and the East Side Kids entry Ghosts on the Loose (1943) (most memorable for featuring a young Ava Gardner), wrapped the film in nine days on a budget of $50,000. In fact, during his preparation for playing Lugosi in Ed Wood (1994), the chronicle of another director of bad movies, Martin Landau watched "Brooklyn Gorilla" three times. Landau, who would earn an Oscar for his turn as Lugosi, said that it was so bad "it made the Ed Wood films look like 'Gone with the Wind'".
In 1947, two years after giving the world the landmark naughty picture "Mom and Dad", Beaudine was contracted by an evangelical Christian organization, the Protestant Film Commission, to make a religious-themed movie (beginning in the late 1940s, evangelist Billy Graham had done quite well in converting non-believers with movies made specifically for that purpose). It was successful and the PFC hired him on a regular basis to make more films. By 1955 Beaudine had directed ten of them for the Commission, all crafted to spread the word of God and convert non-believers to Christianity. Ironically, Beaudine himself reportedly was an atheist, who took the jobs solely for the money.
Beaudine's ability to overlook almost anything in order to get film into the can would prove a huge advantage in television. In the 1950s he moved into that medium, directing hundreds of episodes of popular series, including shows for Walt Disney. By the 1960s he was one of the principal directors on Lassie (1954), eventually passing the baton on to his son, William Beaudine Jr., upon his retirement from the show (proving the adage that the fruit really doesn't fall far from the tree). At the time of his retirement in 1967, William Beaudine was the oldest active director in Hollywood. He died in Canoga Park, CA, on March 18, 1970, with a record so prolific that it's unlikely to be ever matched again.
In 2005 the "labor of love" brought into the world by William Beaudine and Kroger Babb, two of Hollywood's most prolific sons, was honored by the Library of Congress' National Film Registry with the inclusion of "Mom and Dad" on the list of the nation's cinematic treasures.- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jean Yarbrough was born on 22 August 1900 in Marianna, Arkansas, USA. He was a director and producer, known for I'm the Law (1953), Freckles Comes Home (1942) and Inside Job (1946). He died on 2 August 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Charles T. Barton was born in Oakland, CA, on May 25, 1902. His father managed a candy store, and soon moved the family to Los Angeles, where Charles, nicknamed "Charlie", got a job at age 15 acting as an extra in silent movies. He eventually left acting for a job behind the camera as an assistant director, a position for which he won an Academy Award in 1934. That same year he made his first feature as a director, Wagon Wheels (1934), for Paramount. He stayed at Paramount for several years, turning out four to five pictures a year, but a stint as an assistant to autocratic director Cecil B. DeMille on Union Pacific (1939) resulted in his leaving Paramount for Columbia Pictures. He worked steadily at that studio, directing seven to eight pictures a year, mostly "B" musicals and westerns. In 1945 he left Columbia for Universal Pictures, where he gained a reputation as a first-rate comedy director, especially for Universal's top comedy team, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. He directed what many regard as their best picture, the critically and financially successful Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) (on the other hand, he also directed what many consider their worst picture, Dance with Me, Henry (1956)). Unlike many of the team's directors, Barton actually got along quite well with them, especially Costello, to whom he bore a striking resemblance. The team specifically requested him for "A&C Meet Frankenstein", as their last few pictures had failed and Universal was thinking about dumping them. The film was a huge success and revitalized their career.
As the 1950s progressed Barton began to do less feature work and more television work (he was one of the first feature-film directors to work regularly both in television and films when in 1951 he took over as the house director on The Amos 'n Andy Show (1951)), often for Walt Disney. In the 1960s he became one of the regular directors on the hit comedy series Family Affair (1966) and also directed episodes of several other successful series, such as McHale's Navy (1962), Dennis the Menace (1959) and Hazel (1961).
Charles Barton passed away in Burbank, CA, on December 5, 1981.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
French-born (Paris) George Archainbaud got his start in show business as an actor and stage manager in France. Emigrating to the US in 1915, he got work as an assistant director to fellow French expatriate Emile Chautard at William A. Brady's World Film Co. in Fort Lee, NJ. His directorial debut came in 1917 with As Man Made Her (1917). Archainbaud turned into a prolific director in both films and television, turning out more than 100 features over the next 35 years and numerous TV series episodes.
Although a good amount of his feature-film output was fairly routine, there was some first-rate work scattered among them, such as The Lost Squadron (1932), a gritty and dark tale of a group of former World War I aviators who find work as stunt fliers in war movies. It was a critical and financial success, earning accolades from critics for its exciting flying sequences.
The genre most associated with Archainbaud, however, is westerns. In the 1940s he turned out some fast-paced, exciting westerns, such as The Kansan (1943) and several entries in the Hopalong Cassidy series. When cowboy star Gene Autry went to television to star in his own series, he brought Archainbaud along with him and he became the principal director on the show and other Autry-produced series, such as Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955), Annie Oakley (1954) and The Adventures of Champion (1955).
He died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, CA, in 1959.- Director
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Rivaling Sam Newfield and William Beaudine as one of the American film industry's most prolific directors, Lew Landers began directing features in the mid-'30s under his real name of Louis Friedlander, but changed it to Lew Landers after several films. His first effort, The Raven (1935), with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, was probably his best. Landers worked for just about every studio in Hollywood during his long career, but spent a lot of time at RKO and Columbia turning out low-budget adventure epics, thrillers and westerns. In the 1950s he turned to series television, as many of his fellow B directors did, and alternated between that and features for the remainder of his career.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
David Butler was born on 17 December 1894 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a director and actor, known for You'll Find Out (1940), Look for the Silver Lining (1949) and If I Had My Way (1940). He was married to Elshie H Schulte. He died on 14 June 1979 in Arcadia, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Thomas Carr was born on 4 July 1907 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Congo Bill (1948), Brick Bradford (1947) and Superman's Peril (1954). He was married to Julejane Cameron. He died on 23 April 1997 in Ventura, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
John English was born on 25 June 1903 in Cumbria, England, UK. He was a director and editor, known for Captain America (1944), Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) and Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940). He was married to Nina ?. He died on 11 October 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Robert Florey became infatuated with Hollywood while in his teens. By the time he set off for America in the early 1920s he had written articles on film for Cinemagazine, La Cinematographie Francaise and Le Technicien du Film, acted and directed one-reel shorts in Switzerland and worked as an assistant for Louis Feuillade at his studio in Nice. Sent to Hollywood as a correspondent for one of his French publications, he decided to settle down and learn the film business "from the bottom up", first as a gag writer, then as director of foreign publicity for Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino. In 1924 he was signed by MGM as assistant director on a two-year contract, moving on to Paramount as full director in 1928. During this period of apprenticeship he learned the tricks of his trade under such experienced craftsmen as King Vidor and Josef von Sternberg. His first claim to directing fame were two highly acclaimed avant-garde short films, The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928), and Skyscraper Symphony (1929) -- both heavily influenced by German expressionist cinema. Florey was also tasked with co-directing (alongside Joseph Santley) the first wacky comedy with The Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1929), shot at Paramount's Astoria studio, near Broadway (Groucho Marx was not impressed with either director; he once said about them that "one of them didn't understand Harpo [Harpo Marx] and the other one didn't understand English").
After a spell at the German studio UFA in 1929, Florey joined Universal in 1931. His request to write and direct Frankenstein (1931) with Bela Lugosi was initially accepted. However, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. ultimately disliked Lugosi 's make-up for the monster, and Lugosi himself resented not having a speaking part. Much of Florey's script also ended up on the cutting room floor, except for several key ingredients, such as the ending in the windmill. As consolation for missing out on the prestigious assignment (which went to James Whale), Florey was given a lesser project, Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), with Lugosi as Dr. Mirakle, a demented Darwinian scientist who crossbreeds humans with apes. The stylized, distorted buildings of Florey's Parisian sets were once again reminiscent of German expressionism, notably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Florey, from then on, was set on a career of helming second features for Warner Brothers (1933-35), Paramount (1935-40), Columbia (1941), Warner Brothers again (1942-46) and United Artists (1948-50). As a result of his affinity with horror and science-fiction, he did his best work in these genres. The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) has become something of a cult classic and is notable for some clever montage and animation effects, as well as an effectively eerie atmosphere. Unfortunately, the anti-climactic downbeat ending (a result of studio interference) rather lessened the picture's overall impact.
In 1951, Florey stopped making features and became prodigiously active as a director of television episodes. In 1953 he won the first Directors Guild of America Award bestowed for TV direction, for The Last Voyage (1953). He also wrote eight influential books on the history of cinema.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
Jesse Hibbs was born on 11 January 1906 in Normal, Illinois, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for To Hell and Back (1955), All American (1953) and The Invaders (1967). He was married to Jane Margaret Story. He died on 4 February 1985 in Ojai, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Editorial Department
Paul Landres was born on 21 August 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. Paul was a director and editor, known for The Return of Dracula (1958), The Vampire (1957) and Navy Bound (1951). Paul was married to Jean Landres. Paul died on 26 December 2001 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
After a stint as a jazz musician and a vaudeville entertainer, Sidney Lanfield was hired by Fox Film Corp. in 1926 as a gag writer and brought to Hollywood. Making his debut as a director in 1930, he specialized in romances and light comedies, directing many of Bob Hope's films in the 1930s and 1940s. One of his most successful films, however, was also one of his most atypical: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), a brooding, atmospheric thriller that introduced Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. Lanfield divided the rest of his career between 20th Century-Fox and Paramount; while none of his films were particularly memorable, they were well-crafted, solid entertainment. In the early 1950s he was one of the first major directors to turn to series television, and he ended his career there in the mid-'60s, directing episodes of, among others, McHale's Navy (1962) and The Addams Family (1964).- Director
- Editorial Department
- Editor
The term "style over content" fits director Joseph H. Lewis like a glove. His ability to elevate basically mundane and mediocre low-budget material to sublime cinematic art has gained him a substantial cult following among movie buffs. The Bonnie & Clyde look-alike Gun Crazy (1950), shot in 30 days on a budget of $400,000, is often cited as his best film. This taut gangster flick about two gun-crazy sociopaths on a crime spree is impregnated with an electric atmosphere, zipping along at a breakneck pace. It has been likened to a "tone poem of camera movement" and described by Martin Scorsese as "unrelenting and involving". A master of expressive lighting, tight close-ups, tracking and crane shots and offbeat camera angles and perspectives, Lewis possessed an instinctive sense of visual style, which imbued even the most improbable of his B-grade westerns and crime melodramas. Significant peripheral detail was his stock-in-trade. He acquired these skills working as a camera assistant in the 1920's (his aptitude for the work may have been come from his optometrist father) and further honed them in the MGM editorial department in the early '30s. After that Lewis edited serials at Republic and served the remainder of his apprenticeship as second unit director. He was signed to a full directing contract by Universal in 1937.
During the next two decades, Lewis spent time at Columbia (1939-40, 1946-49), Universal again (1942), PRC (1944), MGM (1950, 1952-53) and United Artists (1957-58), reliably turning out a couple of pictures per year. While he helmed more than his fair share of horse operas, it was invariably his films noir which attracted the most attention. Pick of the bunch were two slick second features during his spell at Columbia, My Name Is Julia Ross (1945), about a diabolical murder plot involving Nina Foch in her first starring role; and So Dark the Night (1946), an offbeat psychological thriller with character actor Steven Geray well cast as a French detective who unwittingly investigates his own crimes. Another candidate for inclusion on any Lewis "best" list would have to be The Big Combo (1955), made for Allied Artists and boasting impressive camera work by John Alton. It marked the beginning of a new cycle of films in which violence became rather more accentuated (the film ran into censorship trouble for that reason) and where the villain (in this case, philosophizing racketeer Richard Conte) was rather more interesting and dynamic than the maniacally obsessive but dullish nominal hero (cop Cornel Wilde).
After suffering a heart attack in 1953, Lewis began to reduce his workload. His cinematic curtain call was the low-budget western Terror in a Texas Town (1958), characterized by deliberate and fluid camera movement and some neat touches, like the hero (Sterling Hayden) sporting a harpoon for the climactic final showdown. The idea of successfully uniting the townsfolk against the tyranny of arbitrary rule was also intended as a veiled attack on McCarthyism. With the credits shot through the spokes of a wagon wheel, "Terror" was a fitting finale to Lewis's career.
He spent a few more years directing episodic TV westerns (including several of the better episodes of The Rifleman (1958)) and finally retired in 1966. When not addressing aspiring directors on the lecture circuit, he spent his remaining decades in leisure pursuits, in particular sailing and deep-sea fishing aboard his much-loved 50-foot trawler "Buena Vista".- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
George Blair was born on 6 December 1905 in Newfield, England, UK. He was a director and assistant director, known for Daredevils of the Clouds (1948), Scotland Yard Investigator (1945) and Rose of the Yukon (1949). He died on 19 April 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Actor
A highly regarded editor (he cut the classic Sunrise (1927)), Harold D. Schuster started out in films as an actor. It didn't take him long to abandon that career, and he turned to the production side of the business, working his way up to editor and eventually taking the reins as a director. While much of his directorial output is routine, there are some real gems scattered throughout. My Friend Flicka (1943) is a beautiful, serene tale of a boy and a spectacular horse and was a major success in its day. Although typed as an "outdoors" director, Schuster could turn out tough, gritty little thrillers when he wanted to, such as Loophole (1954), about a bank teller who gets framed for an embezzlement; it ranks right up there with the edgy crime dramas of Don Siegel and Phil Karlson. Schuster's western Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957), despite its potboiler title, is a sharp, well-paced effort about two disparate groups of travelers who must band together to fight off rampaging Indians. Good writing, a rousing score and Schuster's tight direction raise this several notches above the product normally churned out by its studio, the usually low-grade Allied Artists. Schuster eventually turned to series television, and finished out his career there.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
A former journalist who came from a show-business family--his mother was actress Lydia Knott--western specialist Lambert Hillyer entered films in 1917. After becoming a director, he soon teamed up with cowboy actor William S. Hart for a series of westerns that resulted in making Hart a star, for which the actor--an old-fashioned man who never forgot a slight or a favor--always gave Hillyer credit. Although he could never be considered a stylist, Hillyer often managed to inject his work with the kind of panache and a flourish that other, bigger-budgeted films lacked. The opening scene of Beau Bandit (1930), for example, consists of an eerily atmospheric shot of a posse emerging from a dark, foggy river crossing; it's a somewhat Germanic touch in an otherwise undistinguished film. An incredibly prolific director, Hillyer didn't confine himself to westerns, although they were the majority of his output. He turned out the stylish Dracula's Daughter (1936) and the creepy and chilling The Invisible Ray (1935), both for Universal, and even managed to get in a few serials at Columbia, most notably Batman (1943). Hillyer, like so many B directors before him, finished out his career in television.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Director Wallace Fox has sort of been forgotten in time, though he does have a few films that have become cult favorites. There isn't much known about Fox, but he was born 3/9/1895 in Purcell, OK, and began directing in the silent era (his first film was The Bandit's Son (1927)). He worked mainly on "B" films for "B" studios, especially "Poverty Row" studio Monogram Pictures, for whom he made such films as Bowery at Midnight (1942) and The Corpse Vanishes (1942)--both with Bela Lugosi-- and Pillow of Death (1945), which starred Lon Chaney Jr. and was made for Universal (Universal in the 1940s was more of a "minor major", but was still several steps above Poverty Row). He made quite a few films with the East Side Kids, all at Monogram.
Fox specialized in low-budget westerns, with quite a few to his credit, for a variety of studios including RKO and Universal. In the 1950s he began doing episodic TV, as the market for "B" pictures began to dry up because of television. In 1951 he directed his final film, Montana Desperado (1951), and thereafter turned exclusively to TV. His final directing job was Bull's Eye (1954), after which he retired.
He died on 6/30/1958 at age 63.- Director
- Editor
- Additional Crew
Former propman Howard Bretherton was one of the legion of unknown directors who made the films--mostly westerns--that generations of kids trudged to see at the Saturday afternoon matinées. Bretherton's long career as an action/western director began in the late 1920s and ended more than 25 years later. In between he ground out scores of cowboy flicks, action/adventure yarns, serials, and just about anything anyone would hire him for. He made films the way "B" picture producers wanted them made--fast, with a minimum of fuss and within budget. The fact that Bretherton was also an editor--a skill he passed on to his son, David Bretherton, who was an editor for more than 40 years--who could cut "in the camera" must have added to his desirability in the eyes of producers. Bretherton was one of the directors of the long-running "Hopalong Cassidy" series, and also spent a lot of time at Warner Bros. cranking out many of that studio's gritty little action pictures. Unlike many of his fellow "B" directors who turned to series television toward the end of their careers, Bretherton stayed mostly in features until his retirement in 1952, with only the occasional venture into episodic TV.- Director
- Music Department
- Writer
Entering the film industry at age 13, Will Jason performed a variety of jobs, including scoring several films, before turning to directing. His output was mostly routine, consisting of low-budget horror movies, light comedies and an "Arabian Nights" adventure or two. Unlike many B directors, though, Jason often produced his own films. He was the brother of director Leigh Jason.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Leigh Jason (born Leigh Jacobson) was an instructor at UCLA before entering the film business in 1924 as an electrician. He turned to screenwriting in 1926, then changed his name to Leigh Jason when he started directing in 1928. He turned out numerous shorts and B pictures, mainly thrillers and light comedies, up to the 1950s, when he began to devote most of his energies to directing TV series, although he still directed a feature every now and then. He was the brother of director Will Jason.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
A juvenile actor, Bruce Humberstone started his career as a script clerk, later serving as assistant director for the likes of King Vidor, Edmund Goulding and Allan Dwan. One of the 28 founders of the Directors Guild of America, Humberstone worked in a number of capacities on several silent films. With no distinct directing style of his own, Humberstone was able to direct comedies, dramas, westerns, melodramas or thrillers without any problem. He's known for directing several Charlie Chan films at 20th Century-Fox and came up with the "technique" of keeping star Warner Oland drunk so that he could deliver his lines in a style that was appropriate to the Chan character. During the 1950s Humberstone worked mainly for television, and retired in 1962.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James Tinling was born on 8 May 1898 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Deadline for Murder (1946), Trouble Preferred (1948) and The Flood (1931). He died on 14 May 1967 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Hively was born on 5 September 1910. He was a director and editor, known for They Made Her a Spy (1939), The Saint's Double Trouble (1940) and They Met in Argentina (1941). He died on 19 December 1995 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Felix E. Feist was born on 28 February 1910 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Deluge (1933), The Golden Gloves Story (1950) and Reckless Age (1944). He was married to Lisa Howard. He died on 2 September 1965 in Encino, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
George Waggner was born on 7 September 1894 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Wolf Man (1941), Man Made Monster (1941) and Frisco Sal (1945). He was married to Danny Shannon. He died on 11 December 1984 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
London-born Leslie Goodwins broke into Hollywood in the 1930s as a gag writer for two-reel comedies, and later directed several of them. He started directing features in 1936, specializing in knockabout comedies. Goodwins spent much of his career at RKO, and was responsible for the Leon Errol / Lupe Velez "Mexican Spitfire" series. Like many of his "B" picture colleagues, he turned to directing television in the early 1950s, and finished his career there.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Derwin Abrahams was born on 17 August 1903 in New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Smoky River Serenade (1947), Chick Carter, Detective (1946) and Hop Harrigan America's Ace of the Airways (1946). He died on 5 November 1974 in Yolo County, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Editor
William F. Claxton was born on 22 October 1914 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Half Past Midnight (1948), Desire in the Dust (1960) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He died on 11 February 1996 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Additional Crew
Louis King was born on 28 June 1898 in Christianburg, Virginia, USA. He was a director, known for The Arm of the Law (1932), Dangerous Mission (1954) and Bengal Tiger (1936). He was married to Mary Elizabeth White. He died on 7 September 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
The son of comedian and theatre director Ludwig Brahm, Hans followed in his father's footsteps and began his career on the stages of Vienna, Berlin and Paris. Again, like his father, he graduated to directing and had his first fling with the film business as a dialogue director for a Franco/German co-production, starring his future wife Dolly Haas. Hans went to England in 1934 to escape Nazi persecution (and to avoid being caught up in another war, having spent much of the previous conflagration as a conscript on the Russian Front). After a brief spell as a production supervisor, Brahm made his directing debut with an undistinguished remake of D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms (1936). A year later, he moved on to the U.S..
Having anglicised his first name to John, he arrived in Hollywood in 1937 and was signed to a three-year contract at Columbia (1937-40), followed by another three years with 20th Century Fox (1941-44). Brahm specialised in suspense thrillers, often with psychological undertones, at times involving madness. His affinity with filming the sinister and the grotesque had much to do with the influence of his uncle Otto, once an influential theatrical producer. Otto introduced his nephew to the dark and fantastic elements of classic German expressionist cinema, including films like Faust (1926). At Fox, Brahm directed two masterpieces back-to-back: the stylish and moody 'Jack the Ripper' look-alike The Lodger (1944); and, in a similar vein, Hangover Square (1945), a gothic melodrama about insanity and murder, set in Victorian London. Both films starred the excellent, sadly short-lived, actor Laird Cregar, whose professionalism and finely-etched performances Brahm greatly appreciated. Much of the credit for the pace and detail of these films belongs to Brahm himself, who meticulously mapped out every scene and camera angle before shooting commenced.
Another of Brahm's films, not in the same league as the aforementioned, but nonetheless quite enjoyable, is The Mad Magician (1954). Something of a precursor to the cycle of low-budget horror films Vincent Price was later to make at American-International, it was shot in the experimental 3-D process. What the picture lacked in a visceral sense, it made up for in period detail and in an enjoyable star performance reminiscent of the earlier House of Wax (1953).
By the mid-1950's, Brahm had segued from films to television, but never strayed far from the macabre. He directed some of the best-loved episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Outer Limits (1963), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) and, especially, The Twilight Zone (1959) ("Time Enough at Last" comes to mind, in particular). Brahm retired in 1968. He spent the last years of his life confined to a wheelchair and died in October 1982 at the respectable age of 89.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Russian-born Edward Ludwig came to the U.S. as a child and was educated in Canada and New York City. He entered the film business as an actor in silents, then became a scenarist and screenwriter, and in the early 1930s turned to directing. Although most of his films were routine second features, he showed a flair for action pictures, a good example of which is a John Wayne war epic he made for Republic, The Fighting Seabees (1944), one of Wayne's better--and most successful--films for that studio. In the late 1950s he turned to directing TV series.- Director
- Production Manager
- Producer
Born in England on Christmas Day, 1905, Lewis Allen first came on the show-biz scene when he was appointed executive in charge of West End and Broadway stage productions for famed impresario Gilbert Miller. Allen also co-directed some of the productions (including the celebrated "Victoria Regina" with Helen Hayes and Vincent Price) before he was lured to Hollywood by Paramount studio head Buddy G. DeSylva. The Uninvited (1944), based on Dorothy Macardle's best-selling novel, made for an auspicious directing debut; its success prompted an immediate follow-up, the suspense thriller The Unseen (1945) (with a script by Raymond Chandler). Otherwise, his filmography leans heavily toward "tough guy" movies of the Alan Ladd-George Raft-Edward G. Robinson school. Allen also directed much TV (Perry Mason (1957), The Big Valley (1965), Mission: Impossible (1966), Little House on the Prairie (1974), many more).- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Abby Berlin was born on 7 August 1907 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Mary Ryan, Detective (1949), Double Deal (1950) and Blondie's Big Moment (1947). He was married to Iris Meredith and Jean Joyce. He died on 19 August 1965 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Director Stuart Heisler began his film-industry career as a prop man in 1913, joining Mack Sennett at Keystone the following year. He worked as an editor for Samuel Goldwyn at United Artists from 1924-25 and again from 1929-34 and at Paramount from 1935-36. He graduated to second-unit director with John Ford's The Hurricane (1937). He started his directorial career at Paramount in 1940 and stayed there until 1942, turning out mostly "B"-grade films but was occasionally given an "A" picture. The majority of his output was routine but he did turn out several first-rate films, his best-known probably being the sleeper hit The Biscuit Eater (1940), a small film about a boy and a dog that became an unexpected financial and critical success, garnering Heisler the best reviews of his career. After leaving Paramount he free-lanced. He directed Bette Davis in The Star (1952) and did a bang-up job with Ginger Rogers and Ronald Reagan in the hard-hitting anti-Klan drama Storm Warning (1950). He made his last film, the underwhelming Hitler (1962), in 1962. He had begun directing for television in 1960 and after Hitler (1962) he went into it full time, retiring in 1964.- Director
- Additional Crew
- Actor
William D. Russell was born on 30 April 1908 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for You Are There (1953), The Farmer's Daughter (1963) and Family Affair (1966). He was married to Mota Maye Shaw. He died on 1 April 1968 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
- Director
Born in Detroit, Cambridge-educated Seymour Friedman entered films in 1937 as an assistant editor, eventually graduating to assistant director. After WW II service, he returned to the film industry as a director, mainly of routine, low-budget action films, many for Columbia Pictures, debuting with Trapped by Boston Blackie (1948). After his film career ended, Friedman, like many of his fellow B directors, went into the television industry. However, unlike them, it was as a production executive rather than as a director.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Originally a writer and artist, William A. Seiter entered films with Selig. He worked from 1915 as a stunt double and bit player at Keystone and quickly graduated to directing comedy shorts. He moved up to features in the 1920s. He married actress Laura La Plante, who he directed in several films, such as Skinner's Dress Suit (1926), He was at his best, though, in charge of comic teams such as Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (he directed what many believe to be their finest film, Sons of the Desert (1933)), Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (Little Giant (1946)) and The Marx Brothers.
Most of his early work was under contract to Universal (1924-28) and Warner Brothers (1928-29). He successfully made the transition to sound and remained much in demand for light comedy, working for RKO (1931-34), 20th Century-Fox (1934-38), Universal (1939-41 and again from 1945-49). He retired in 1954. He is perhaps best remembered for "Sons of the Desert" and the musical Roberta (1935) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Starting out as an extra in Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops series, D. Ross Lederman worked his way through the ranks of film production, and made his mark as a second-unit director. Becoming a feature director in the late 1920s, he specialized in action films and especially westerns, turning out a number of first-rate oaters with Tim McCoy at Columbia. By most accounts a somewhat brusque man with an aversion to retakes and prima donna behavior (he locked horns with McCoy on more than one occasion), Lederman's penchant for getting films done on time and under budget no doubt endeared him to producers and guaranteed him steady employment, but often made his films look somewhat rushed. In the 1950s Lederman, like many of his "B" picture colleagues, turned to series television and directed many episodes of Annie Oakley (1954), among others.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Erle C. Kenton entered films as an actor with the Mack Sennett troupe (he was one of the original Keystone Kops). In addition to acting, he performed pretty much any kind of behind-the-scenes job he could get, and by 1919 Sennett gave him a job directing two-reel comedies. The next year he graduated to features. While specializing in comedies (he directed two of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's best films, Pardon My Sarong (1942) and Who Done It? (1942)), Kenton also branched out into the horror field, turning out a few somewhat interesting efforts (House of Dracula (1945), House of Frankenstein (1944)) and one genuine classic: Island of Lost Souls (1932). In the 1950s, like many of his B-picture colleagues, he turned to television and finished his career there.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Norman Foster was born on 13 December 1903 in Richmond, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Loretta Young Show (1953), I Cover Chinatown (1936) and Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1938). He was married to Sally Blane and Claudette Colbert. He died on 7 July 1976 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Vincent Sherman was born on 16 July 1906 in Vienna, Georgia, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Affair in Trinidad (1952), Counsellor at Law (1933) and All Through the Night (1942). He was married to Hedda Comoraw. He died on 18 June 2006 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Ralph Murphy was born on 1 May 1895 in Rockville, Connecticut, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Crossroads (1955), Mystery of the Black Jungle (1954) and The Man in Half Moon Street (1944). He was married to Maryon Curtis and Gloria Dickson. He died on 10 February 1967 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
Philip Ford was born on 16 October 1900 in Portland, Maine, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Web of Danger (1947), Prisoners in Petticoats (1950) and Valley of the Zombies (1946). He was married to Jane Eliza Harrison, Viola Catherine Waller and Lucia Diprete. He died on 12 January 1976 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Born in Oklahoma City, Albert Rogell moved with his family to Spokane, WA, when he was a child. At 15 he got a job with the Washington Motion Picture Co. Having gotten a taste of the film business, he headed to Los Angeles after the company went bankrupt, and had a succession of jobs before joining up with director George Loane Tucker, with whom he learned the business from the ground up. After Tucker's death Rogell was hired by producer Sol Lesser to direct shorts. A feature director from 1923, his output was mainly "B" pictures, but he specialized in tight little action films and westerns, such as In Old Oklahoma (1943), and turned out the charming fantasy Heaven Only Knows (1947). He left film production in the 1950s and moved over to television.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
- Producer
A Hollywood native (born there in 1907), seven-year-old Wesley Barry was spotted by a director at Kalem who was taken with the boy's face full of freckles, and he went on to become one of the most popular child actors in the business. Barry had been making picture for several years when director Marshall Neilan scrubbed off the layers of greasepaint that covered his freckles (the standard "solution" at the time in Hollywood to cover up facial blemishes) and let the boy's naturally wild hair grow out instead of being slicked down. Audiences were charmed by the young actor's naturalness and "all-American" looks and flocked to his films. His biggest success was Dinty (1920), but he also scored with Penrod (1922), School Days (1920) and Rags to Riches (1922). Barry was not one of those former child stars whose life fell apart after growing into adulthood; he got involved in the production end of the business and enjoyed a long career as an assistant director, producer and director in both films and television. He died in Fresno, CA, in 1994.- Director
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
One of the more prolific American directors, Alfred E. Green entered films in 1912 as an actor for the Selig Polyscope Co. He became an assistant to director Colin Campbell and started directing two-reelers, turning to features in 1917. His career lasted into the mid-1950s but his output was mostly routine, though there were some gems among them. A solid, dependable journeyman, not given to flashy directorial touches, he was picked by Mary Pickford to direct quite a few of her pictures in the 1920s, and he guided Wallace Reid and Colleen Moore in several of their bigger hits. He directed Bette Davis in her Oscar-winning performance in Dangerous (1935) and was responsible for the commercial and critical success of The Jolson Story (1946). That film, however, was followed by a string of routine B pictures.
Green had suffered for many years from arthritis, which got worse as he got older. In an interview, producer Albert Zugsmith recalled that during the filming of Top Banana (1954) Green was so crippled by the disease that he was seldom able to move from the director's chair.
He made his last feature in 1954 and spent the remainder of his career directing episodic TV series.- Director
- Art Director
- Costume Designer
Mitchell Leisen was born on 6 October 1898 in Menominee, Michigan, USA. He was a director and art director, known for Death Takes a Holiday (1934), The Mating Season (1951) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941). He was married to Stella Yeager. He died on 28 October 1972 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Editorial Department
Virgil W. Vogel began his career at Universal in 1940 as an assistant editor. He worked as an editor for many years, although by the mid-'50s he had begun to tire of the job and pressed Universal executive Edward Muhl for a shot at directing. Vogel was handed The Mole People (1956) with John Agar, and his capable handling of that film led to other assignments at the studio. Vogel later directed many made-for-television movies as well as episodes of TV's Bonanza (1959), Wagon Train (1957), M Squad (1957), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), Mission: Impossible (1966), Quantum Leap (1989), Spenser: For Hire (1985) and many others.- Editor
- Director
- Actor
W. Duncan Mansfield started his career in the film industry as an editor for pioneering producer/director Thomas H. Ince. He later directed, produced and worked on several compilation films with comedian Harold Lloyd. He also did a lot of work in television, editing such shows as M Squad (1957), Wagon Train (1957) and Highway Patrol (1955).- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Benjamin H. Kline was born on 11 July 1894 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Guard That Girl (1935), The Party's Over (1934) and Troopers Three (1930). He was married to Annette Halprin. He died on 7 January 1974 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Production Manager
A UCLA graduate, Ben Stoloff started his career as a comedy short director for Fox Films, and later became a feature director for such western icons as Tom Mix and Buck Jones. He also directed a number of musicals for Fox and was a producer and director of features, mostly "B" pictures, and shorts at RKO from 1935-39.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
One of the more prolific American directors, Charles Lamont entered films as an actor in 1919 and became a director in 1922. He churned out numerous one- and two-reel comedies for various producers, including Mack Sennett and Al Christie, and began directing features in the mid-'30s. Lamont was a staple of such independent studios as Chesterfield and Republic, for whom he turned out many action, western and comedy films, but he found his niche at Universal in the late 1930s, and directed several comedies for Universal's top comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, including one of their best, Hit the Ice (1943). Lamont also handled a number of Universal's Yvonne De Carlo Technicolor adventure extravaganzas, and helmed many entries in the studio's successful "Ma and Pa Kettle" series.- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
American second feature director George Sherman arrived in California aboard the SS Mongolia (bound from New York City, where he was born), on which he served as a bellboy. He began his career in the movie business in the mail room at Warner Brothers before working his way up to assistant director. By 1937, he had graduated to directing in his own right under contract to Republic Pictures. Sherman specialized almost exclusively in "B" westerns there (including the "Three Mesquiteers" series, which featured a young John Wayne). He also made occasional forays into action and horror themes, often managing to achieve a sense of style over substance. 'Variety', commenting on his handling of the "Mesquiteers" series, singled out his ability to imparting a "poetry in motion" to his "unified timing of cowboys mounting, riding, wheeling, galloping and dismounting of steeds" (July 2 1939). From 1940, Sherman also served as associate producer on many of his films.
The diminutive (5'0") Sherman turned out reliable low-budget fare for Columbia between 1945-48, then moved on to do the same at Universal for another eight years. After that, he turned to freelancing and working in television. The only "A"-grade products to his credit were two westerns, both starring John Wayne: The Comancheros (1961) (as producer) and Big Jake (1971) (as director, although Wayne took over when Sherman fell ill).- Director
- Editor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Herbert I. Leeds was a journeyman film editor before turning director in 1937. Many of his films were made for 20th Century-Fox, and his training as an editor was evident in the efficiency and tight pacing of his films. Although he started out making westerns, he soon turned to mysteries and adventures. His war film, Manila Calling (1942) was not the flag-waving, jingoistic propaganda piece typical of that era; while an action film, it eschewed phony heroics (until the last reel, anyway) in its story of a group of American soldiers and civilians trapped on Luzon by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. He also directed two enjoyable entries in the underrated Lloyd Nolan "Michael Shayne" private detective series. Unlike many B directors, Leeds' final films kept up to the same quality as his early ones, and his next-to-last picture, Bunco Squad (1950) is, despite its potboiler title, a solid, well-crafted and well-acted little thriller.- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Bretaigne Windust was born on 20 January 1906 in Paris, France. Bretaigne was a director and producer, known for The Enforcer (1951), Startime (1959) and Winter Meeting (1948). Bretaigne was married to Irene Windust and Lora Baxter. Bretaigne died on 18 March 1960 in New York City, New York, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Joseph Santley was born on 10 January 1889 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Mad Holiday (1936), Million Dollar Baby (1934) and His College Chums (1929). He was married to Ivy Sawyer. He died on 8 August 1971 in West Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Additional Crew
After moving to California in the 1930s, Jerry Hopper worked as an editor at Paramount Studios.
During World War II he joined the Army and worked as a combat photographer where he was awarded a Purple Heart.
After the war, Hopper returned to Hollywood where he graduated to directing. After working prolifically in film during the Fifties, Hopper switched to television where he went on to direct over 600 episodes before effectively retiring in the early 1970s.- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Director John Rawlins started in films in 1918 as an actor, stunt man, gag writer and assistant director. For a while he sidelined as a comedy writer, then became an editor and later directed second features for First National in Britain from the early 1930s. Returning to the US, he joined Universal (1938-46), where he turned out "B" pictures and serials, including installments of the "Dick Tracy" and "Sherlock Holmes" series. He had similar assignments at RKO (1947-48) and United Artists (1951-53), before branching out into television dramas.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Boston-born Ray Nazarro began his movie career in the silent-film era, where he often worked as an assistant director. He started his directing career in 1932, beginning with shorts and graduating to low-budget quickie features for Poverty Row studios. He alternated between directing shorts and an assistant director on features--often on westerns at Columbia--for years. By 1945 he fell into directing westerns for that studio, a genre and a studio in which Nazarro would spent the vast majority of his career. He worked steadily for the next 20 years, churning out dozens and dozens of Columbia's westerns, including many in the "Durango Kid" series with Charles Starrett, and was at the helm of a slew of Columbia's musical westerns and low-budget hillbilly musicals, which featured such acts as The Hoosier Hotshots. As the era of the B western ended, Nazarro journeyed to Europe, where he turned out some "spaghetti westerns" and was one of several directors to work on a bizarre and trouble-plagued Jayne Mansfield film, Einer frisst den anderen (1964). He also returned to directing television series, a medium in which he had occasionally worked since the early 1950s -- again, mostly in westerns.- Director
- Editor
- Additional Crew
James B. Clark was born on 14 May 1908 in Stillwater, Minnesota, USA. James B. was a director and editor, known for How Green Was My Valley (1941), Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964) and An Affair to Remember (1957). James B. died on 19 July 2000 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
- Additional Crew
Milwaukee-born Don Weis began as a director of light-hearted, often youth-oriented entertainment. After graduating in film studies from the University of Southern California in 1942, he got his first job as an errand boy at Warner Brothers. He saw wartime service as a technician with the 1st Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Corps, involved in the production of training films at Culver City. After the war he resumed his apprenticeship with Enterprise Productions as a dialogue director and assistant on several pictures produced by Stanley Kramer. In 1951 he was signed by Dore Schary to a two-year contract at MGM, making his directorial feature debut with the newspaper expose Bannerline (1951). This was followed by a string of light comedies and musicals of widely varying quality.
Among the best of the bunch was the cheerful George Wells-scripted and -produced musical I Love Melvin (1953) starring Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, highlighted by several exuberant dance routines and an engaging dream sequence in which Debbie sings "A Lady Loves". There was also a youthful college comedy, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), and an enjoyable minor sword-and-sandal outing made for Fox, entitled The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954). Of considerably less interest were two inane entries in the "beach party" genre aimed specifically at the teen market: the sleep-inducing, apropriately-titled Pajama Party (1964) and the even sillier The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), which sadly wasted the talents of such excellent screen veterans as Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. It didn't get any better with the decidely laborious and unamusing farce Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968). Though conceived by two talented writers (James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum) who later earned a well-deserved reputation for their rather wittier collaborative effort on M*A*S*H (1972), the humour was as obvious as the title might suggest. The venture, predictably, did not make a screen star out of Phyllis Diller.
In 1954 Weis began to direct episodes for television, a medium to which he found himself eminently suited. In the course of the next 30 years he became one of TV's busiest directors and one of the most accomplished, winning six annual awards from the Directors Guild of America. Ranging across every known genre, he was equally at ease helming the iconic Batman (1966) as he was behind the camera of some 58 episodes of crime-busting, wheelchair-bound Ironside (1967), or guiding four of the best installments of the cult series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974). Weis achieved his greatest success directing a brace of the most enduring episodes of the long-running and much-loved medical comedy "M*A*S*H*". Following his retirement he presided over the Motion Picture Permanent Charities Committee (PCC) and served on the board of the New Mexico Film Council.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Joseph M. Newman worked his way up from office boy and clerk to writer and assistant director under George Cukor, Ernst Lubitsch and others. In 1937 he was briefly assigned to MGM's British section as a second unit director, but returned home within the year to direct short features. His occasional involvement in bigger productions included shooting the famous "Donkey Serenade" from The Firefly (1937), for which he did not receive screen credit. Indeed, he received two Oscar nominations as assistant director (a short-lived category in the awards). After directing his first full-length motion picture, Northwest Rangers (1942), Newman served in the war, rising to the rank of major, making documentaries and newsreels for the Signal Corps. The sense of realism and attention to detail he gained during this time served him in later years.
Many of his films, almost all second features and shot on modest budgets, use character actors rather than stars for the lead roles. They have a gritty, semi-documentary look, particularly his two best offerings: the film noir 711 Ocean Drive (1950) and the outdoor drama Red Skies of Montana (1952). Many also share an overriding preoccupation with technology, as in "711 Ocean Drive", in which an electronically-minded telephone repairman (Edmond O'Brien) becomes entangled with a shady bookmaking syndicate. Newman's most famous film would have to be the cult sci-fi This Island Earth (1955)--in which the main stars, it must be said, were the special effects--which features clever matte paintings and lush three-strip Technicolor photography. Newman's contribution to the film is somewhat diminished, however, by the fact that nearly half of it (set on the planet Metaluna) was re-shot by director Jack Arnold because the studio was unhappy with the initial result. Arnold, in the end, shot some of the most famous scenes, including the mutant attack and the escape through the tunnels.
After "This Island Earth", Newman's work was competent, if routine: a few westerns, a minor swashbuckler and a couple of crime pictures. Sci-fi fans will remember his four entries into The Twilight Zone (1959), though none were among the most compelling of the series.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
British-born A. Edward ("Eddie") Sutherland started in vaudeville and acted in films from 1914 at Keystone (he was one of the original Keystone Kops). He became a director in 1925, first with Paramount (1925-31), then at United Artists (1931-32), again with Paramount (1933, 1935-37), then Universal (1940-41) and RKO (1942). He hit his stride in the 1930s and 1940s with a string of well-received comedies starring Laurel & Hardy and W.C. Fields, but his Abie's Irish Rose (1946), an adaptation of the often-filmed stage play, which he also produced, was such a critical and financial disaster that he could not find work as a director in Hollywood again. In the 1950s he went to Britain and ended his career directing episodic television.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 8, 1896, director Eugene Forde began his industry career as a child actor on the legitimate stage. He left the business in the early 1920s, but in 1926 came back as a writer/director. He was one of the mainstays at the 20th Century-Fox "B" unit starting in 1932, and stayed at the studio until 1947. He was responsible for several of the studio's well-regarded "Charlie Chan" entries. His last film was The Invisible Wall (1947). He directed occasionally after that on television, most notably on I Led 3 Lives (1953).
He died in Port Hueneme, California, on February 27, 1986.- Director
- Editor
- Actor
Harold Young was born on 13 November 1897 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He was a director and editor, known for Song of the Sarong (1945), Newsboys' Home (1938) and The Forgotten Woman (1939). He was married to Emily. He died on 3 March 1972 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.- Writer
- Director
Lester Fuller was born on 29 January 1908 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for We Go to Monte Carlo (1953), Three Steps North (1951) and You Can't Ration Love (1944). He died on 5 August 1962 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Harvard-educated Charles Haas entered films in 1935 as an extra at Universal. He was soon promoted to assistant director, then branched out into directing documentaries and industrial films. During WW II he made training films for the Army Signal Corps. After the war he went back to work for Universal, and was assigned to write and produce Moonrise (1948). He soon returned to making industrial films, then turned to television directing. He made his feature directorial debut in 1956, and turned out a string of low-budget westerns, gangster and juvenile-delinquent pictures - several with third-string Marilyn Monroe wannabe Mamie Van Doren - before returning to television.- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Philip Leacock was brought up in the Canary Islands and educated at the English boarding school Bedales. He began in the film industry as a camera assistant in 1935. After serving with the Army Kinematograph Service during World War II, he joined the Crown Film Unit in 1948, making his directing debut with Life in Her Hands (1951). His previous experience working on documentaries led to his second film, The Brave Don't Cry (1952), being a critical success. On the strength of this, he was signed by the Rank Organisation as a contract director. Leacock had a reputation for working well with children. Thus, many of his films, such as The Spanish Gardener (1956), centered around children, or adolescents, as in Take a Giant Step (1959).
After 1963 Leacock moved to Hollywood, and concentrated almost exclusively on directing episodic television and made-for-TV movies. He retired in 1987 and died three years later while on vacation in London.- Director
- Writer
Robert B. Sinclair was born on 24 May 1905 in Toledo, Ohio, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Mr. and Mrs. North (1942), Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958) and The Detectives (1959). He was married to Heather Angel and Jane Buchanan. He died on 4 January 1970 in Montecito, California, USA.- Director
- Editor
- Editorial Department
Harmon Jones started his career as a film editor at 20th Century-Fox, where he was entrusted with many of the studio's top projects (Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Sitting Pretty (1948), Anna and the King of Siam (1946)), but when he turned to directing feature films, his output was far less impressive. After handling mostly low-grade westerns and tepid thrillers, Jones turned to directing TV series in the 1950s, and ended his career there in the 1960s.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Special Effects
Roy Kellino was born on April 22, 1912 in London, England as Philip Roy Gislingham. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Four Star Playhouse (1952), _Schlitz Playhouse (1951) (TV Series)_, and Charade (1954). He was married firstly to Pamela Ostrer (later known as Pamela Mason), and secondly to Barbara Billingsley. He died unexpectedly on November 18, 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Barry Shipman was born on 24 February 1912 in Pasadena, California, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940), Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island (1936) and Smoky River Serenade (1947). He was married to Gwynne Shipman. He died on 12 August 1994 in San Bernardino, California, USA.- Editor
- Director
- Producer
Arthur Hilton was born on 5 April 1897 in London, England, UK. He was an editor and director, known for The Killers (1946), Mission: Impossible (1966) and Cat-Women of the Moon (1953). He died on 15 October 1979 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Richard Whorf was born on 4 June 1906 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Blues in the Night (1941) and The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). He was married to Margaret Harriet Smith (actress). He died on 14 December 1966 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Educated at Northwestern University, Frederick De Cordova began his show business career on the stage, and came to Hollywood in the mid-'40s as a dialogue director. He graduated to director in 1945. He spent much of his career at Universal Pictures, where he turned out medium-budget westerns, comedies and musicals. In the mid-'50s he turned his main focus to television, directing and producing The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), The Jack Benny Program (1950) and December Bride (1954). Although he directed an occasional feature, he was much more successful on TV, and in 1971 became executive producer of the long-running late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).- Editor
- Director
Lester Orlebeck was born on 26 June 1907 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA. He was an editor and director, known for Citadel of Crime (1941), Traffic in Crime (1946) and Outlaws of Cherokee Trail (1941). He died on 2 August 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.