Lost Generation Directors

1. Francis X. Bushman

Francis X. Bushman was born on January 10, 1883 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Sabrina (1954), The Phantom Planet (1961) and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). He was married to Iva Millicient Richardson, Norma Emily Atkin, Beverly Bayne and Josephine ...

2. Joe King

Actor | Smashing the Money Ring

Joe King was born on February 9, 1883 in Austin, Texas, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Smashing the Money Ring (1939), Special Agent (1935) and Her Bitter Cup (1916). He was married to Hazel Buckham. He died on April 11, 1951 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

3. Theodor Loos

Actor | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

Theodor Loos was born on May 18, 1883 in Zwingenberg, Hesse, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for M (1931), Metropolis (1927) and Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924). He died on June 27, 1954 in Stuttgart, Germany.

4. Sam Wood

Director | A Night at the Opera

Following a two-year apprenticeship under Cecil B. DeMille as assistant director, Samuel Grosvenor Wood had the good fortune to have assigned to him two of the biggest stars at Paramount during their heyday: Wallace Reid (between 1919 and 1920) and Gloria Swanson (from 1921 to 1923). By the time ...

5. Mauritz Stiller

Director | Erotikon

Moshe "Mauritz" Stiller, born July 17, 1883, in Helsinki, Finland, was a director, writer and actor. He began his artistic activity in the theatre, as an actor at 16. Mauritz Stiller portrayed 87 roles from 1899-1916 and directed 16 productions 1911-28. Together with Viktor Sjöström ( director, ...

6. Max Fleischer

Producer | The Tantalizing Fly

Max Fleischer was an American animator, inventor, and film producer from Krakow. As an inventor, Fleischer is primarily known for inventing the rotoscope, an animation technique that allowed animators to draw realistic images and movements, based on live-action images. He later co-founded the ...

7. Giovanni Pastrone

Director | Cabiria

Giovanni Pastrone was born on September 13, 1883 in Montechiaro d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Cabiria (1914), Julius Caesar (1909) and Il fuoco (la favilla - la vampa - la cenere) (1916). He died on June 27, 1959 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.

8. Glen Cavender

Actor | The General

Glen Cavender was born in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He was an actor and director, known for [=tt0017925], [=tt0463180] and The Man from Brodney's (1923). Before he went into the movies he was a soldier of fortune. He served in the Boer war, in Cuba and in the Philippines. Also, served in China during ...

9. Oscar Micheaux

Writer | Within Our Gates

Oscar Micheaux, the first African-American to produce a feature-length film (The Homesteader (1919)) and a sound feature-length film (The Exile (1931)), is not only a major figure in American film for these milestones, but because his oeuvre is a window into the American history and psyche ...

10. Nils Olaf Chrisander

Director | Das Gelübde der Keuschheit

Nils Olaf Chrisander was born on February 14, 1884 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was an actor and director, known for Das Gelübde der Keuschheit (1919), Alraune und der Golem (1919) and Die weißen Rosen von Ravensberg (1919). He died on June 5, 1947 in Skivarp, Skurup, Skåne län, Sweden.

11. Robert J. Flaherty

Director | Louisiana Story

Robert J. Flaherty was born on February 16, 1884 in Iron Mountain, Michigan, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Louisiana Story (1948), Man of Aran (1934) and Elephant Boy (1937). He was married to Frances H. Flaherty. He died on July 23, 1951 in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA.

12. Fred Kelsey

Actor | On Trial

Fred Kelsey was born on August 20, 1884 in Sandusky, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for On Trial (1928), The Lone Wolf Strikes (1940) and Red-Haired Alibi (1932). He was married to Katherine Miller. He died on September 2, 1961 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

13. J.M. Kerrigan

Actor | Gone with the Wind

J.M. Kerrigan was born on December 16, 1884 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor and director, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and The Wolf Man (1941). He died on April 29, 1964 in Hollywood, California, USA.

14. Mihály Fekete

Actor | Szibéria

Actor and director, a Merited Artist of the Romanian People's Republic. He wrote plays, a monograph (A temesvári színészet története) and a memoir in 1919 (Faluról falura). He stood in front of a camera for the first time in 1913 and he played leading roles in several of the films of Jenõ Janovics ...

15. Béla Balogh

Director | Elnémult harangok

In 1904 he was a member of the Népligeti Színkör (Acting Group of the People's Park) then he entered into engagement in the country as singer romantic lead and theatre director. Later he went to Budapest. In WWI he became disabled. After his discharge he played in Royal Orfeum and Crystal Palace. ...

16. George Fitzmaurice

Director | The Devil to Pay!

American director of French-Dutch ancestry, born in Paris. He studied the fine arts in Paris before resettling in America. As a set designer for stage productions, he was able to break into films in 1908 doing the same work. He dabbled in screen writing and then began directing, at first ...

17. Roland West

Director | Alibi

Roland West was born in Cleveland, OH, and became an actor in the theater and on the vaudeville stage. He got his start in the film industry in New York City around 1915, forming several production companies to shoot films there. He later worked as general manager of production for producer Joseph ...

18. Sacha Guitry

Writer | Les perles de la couronne

French actor, dramatist and director, Sacha Guitry was born in 1885 in Saint-Petersburg where his father, actor Lucien Guitry, was under contract with the city's French theater. Early on, Sacha knew he was going to be an artist. Therefore, his studies were mediocre.

His acting debuts were not too ...

19. Allan Dwan

Director | Bound in Morocco

Allan Dwan was born on April 3, 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for Bound in Morocco (1918), A Perfect Crime (1921) and Panthea (1917). He was married to Marie Shelton and Pauline Bush. He died on December 28, 1981 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, ...

20. Charles Dullin

Actor | Maldone

Charles Dullin was born on May 12, 1885 in Yenne, Savoie, France. He was an actor and producer, known for Misdeal (1928), Miracle of the Wolves (1924) and L'homme qui vendit son âme au diable (1921). He was married to Marcelle Charles Dullin. He died on December 11, 1949 in Paris, France.

21. Harry Gribbon

Actor | Show People

Harry Gribbon was born on June 9, 1885 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Show People (1928), The Cameraman (1928) and Art Trouble (1934). He was married to May Emory. He died on July 28, 1961 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

22. Carl Hoffmann

Director | Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich

Carl Hoffmann was born on June 9, 1885 in Neisse, Silesia, Germany [now Nysa, Opolskie, Poland]. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Die Leute mit dem Sonnenstich (1936), Looping the Loop (1928) and Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel (1928). He died on August 5, 1947 in Minden, North ...

23. Paul Leni

Director | The Man Who Laughs

Paul Leni was born on July 8, 1885 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was an art director and director, known for The Man Who Laughs (1928), Das Rätsel von Bangalor (1918) and The Last Warning (1928). He died on September 2, 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

24. Jacques Feyder

Director | La kermesse héroïque

Jacques Feyder was born on July 21, 1885 in Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium. He was a director and writer, known for Carnival in Flanders (1935), Le grand jeu (1934) and Fahrendes Volk (1938). He was married to Françoise Rosay. He died on May 24, 1948 in Rive-de-Prangins, Switzerland.

25. Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Director | Komödianten

Georg Wilhelm Pabst is considered by many to be the greatest director of German cinema, in his era. He was especially appreciated by actors and actresses for the humane way in which he treated them. This was in contrast to some of his contemporaries, such as Arnold Fanck, who have been ...

26. Carmine Gallone

Director | Giuseppe Verdi

Carmine Gallone was born on September 10, 1885 in Taggia, Liguria, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Life of Giuseppe Verdi (1938), Odessa in fiamme (1942) and Scipione l'africano (1937). He was married to Soava Gallone. He died on March 12, 1973 in Frascati, Lazio, Italy.

27. Erich von Stroheim

Actor | Sunset Blvd.

Erich von Stroheim was born Erich Oswald Stroheim in 1885, in Vienna, Austria, to Johanna (Bondy), from Prague, and Benno Stroheim, a hatter from Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). His family was Jewish.

After spending some time working in his father's hat factory, he emigrated to America ...

28. O.A.C. Lund

Director | Together

O.A.C. Lund was born on January 11, 1886 in Kolbäck, Västmanland, Sweden. He was a director and writer, known for Together (1918), The Nature Girl (1918) and Peg of the Pirates (1918). He died on May 2, 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden.

29. John M. Stahl

Director | Leave Her to Heaven

John Stahl was the final executive in charge of Tiffany Pictures (located on the Talisman lot, later owned by Monogram Pictures), once a big fish in the pond of "Poverty Row", which in those days also included Columbia Pictures. With a B-movie history dating back to the silent era and after making ...

30. Henry King

Director | The Song of Bernadette

For more than three decades, Henry King was the most versatile and reliable (not to mention hard-working) contract director on the 20th Century-Fox lot. His tenure lasted from 1930 to 1961, spanning most of Hollywood's "golden" era. King was renowned as a specialist in literary adaptations (A Bell ...

31. Frank Lloyd

Director | Mutiny on the Bounty

Frank Lloyd was an unpretentious, technically skilled director, who crafted several enduring Hollywood classics during the 1930's. He started out as a stage actor and singer in early 1900's London and was well-known as an imitator of Harry Lauder. After several years in music hall and with touring ...

32. Reginald Barker

Director | The Iron Strain

Canadian-born (Winnipeg) Reginald Barker moved with his family to Scotland shortly after he was born, and they eventually emigrated to the US, settling in California. Bitten by the show-business bug early, Barker was acting in plays by age 16, and then joined up with a traveling stock company as ...

33. Alberto Capozzi

Actor | Bianco contro negro

Alberto Capozzi was born on July 8, 1886 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was an actor and director, known for Bianco contro negro (1913), Il fiacre n. 13 (1917) and Salambo (1911). He died on June 27, 1945 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

34. John Cromwell

Director | The Prisoner of Zenda

Actor / director John Cromwell was born December 23, 1887, in Toledo, OH. He made his Broadway debut on October 14, 1912, in Marian De Forest's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" at the Playhouse Theatre. The show was a hit, running for a total of 184 performances. Cromwell appeared ...

35. Michael Curtiz

Director | Casablanca

Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner...

36. Frank Urson

Director | The Love Special

American director, cinematographer, and assistant director of silent films. A native of Chicago, Urson was the nephew of E.J. Hite of the Thanhauser Film Co. With his uncle's help, Urson was trained as a cameraman and eventually relocated to California as a camera operator for Fine Arts Productions...

37. Al Ernest Garcia

Actor | Modern Times

Al Ernest Garcia was born on March 11, 1887 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and casting director, known for Modern Times (1936), The Circus (1928) and City Lights (1931). He was married to Ruth Garcia. He died on September 4, 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

38. Raoul Walsh

Editor | The Birth of a Nation

Raoul Walsh's 52-year directorial career made him a Hollywood legend. Walsh was also an actor: He appeared in the first version of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" renamed Sadie Thompson (1928) opposite Gloria Swanson in the title role. He would have played the Cisco Kid in his own film In Old Arizona ...

39. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Actor | Coney Island

Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. His family moved to California when he was one year old. At age 8 he first appeared on the stage. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. From then until...

40. Konrad Tom

Writer | Ksiazatko

Konrad Tom was born on April 9, 1887 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was a writer and actor, known for Ksiazatko (1937), Mamele (1938) and Ada, Don't Do That! (1936). He was married to Zula Pogorzelska. He died on August 9, 1957 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, ...

41. Hank Mann

Actor | Modern Times

Hank Mann was born on May 28, 1887 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940) and City Lights (1931). He was married to Dolly Myers Robinson, Rae Max and Estelle. He died on November 25, 1971 in South Pasadena, California,...

42. George Abbott

Writer | The Pajama Game

Legendary Broadway writer/producer/director George Abbott was born in 1887 in Forestville, New York. His father was mayor of Salamanca, New York, for two terms. In 1898 his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Abbott attended Kearney Military Academy. The family returned to New York, where Abbott...

43. Charles D. Brown

Actor | The Big Sleep

Charles D. Brown was born on July 1, 1887 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Big Sleep (1946), The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936). He was married to Nellie V. Tallman (actress). He died on November 25, 1948 in Hollywood, California, USA.

44. Jack Conway

Director | Viva Villa!

Born Hugh Ryan Conway of Irish ancestry, Jack Conway was one of a team of MGM contract directors (others included Sam Wood and Robert Z. Leonard), who forsook any pretense to a specific individual style in favor of working within the strictures set forth by studio management--as embodied by Irving ...

45. Roy William Neill

Director | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Roy William Neill was born on September 4, 1887 in ship off Ireland. He was a director and producer, known for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), The Scarlet Claw (1944) and Murder Will Out (1939). He was married to Betty MacLaglen. He died on December 14, 1946 in London, England, UK.

46. Maurice Elvey

Director | The Glad Eye

Maurice Elvey was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, the oldest son of William Clarence Folkard, an inspecting engineer, and Sarah Anna Seward Folkard (formerly Pearce). He never had a formal education, and was working on the streets of London by the age of nine after having run away...

47. George B. Seitz

Director | The Sky Ranger

Former playwright George B. Seitz left the theater for Hollywood in 1913, and before long he was turning out screenplays for action serials such as The Perils of Pauline (1914), The Exploits of Elaine (1914), and The Iron Claw (1916). In addition to writing and sometimes starring in these ...

48. Jules Furthman

Writer | To Have and Have Not

Jules Furthman was a magazine and newspaper writer when he began writing for films in 1915. When the U.S. entered WWI Furthman used the name "Stephen Fox" for his screenplays because he thought his name sounded too German, but he reverted to his real name after the war. Furthman became one of the ...

49. Christy Cabanne

Director | The Great Secret

Christy Cabanne was, along with Sam Newfield and William Beaudine, one of the most prolific directors in the history of American films.

Cabanne spent several years in the navy, leaving the service in 1908. He decided on a career in the theater, and became a director as well as an actor. Although ...

50. Marcel L'Herbier

Director | L'inhumaine

Marcel L'Herbier was born on April 23, 1888 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for L'inhumaine (1924), Le bonheur (1934) and Sacrifice d'honneur (1935). He was married to Marcelle Pradot. He died on November 26, 1979 in Paris, France.

51. Miles Mander

Director | The Flying Doctor

This versatile artist, who had spent his 20's in New Zealand farming sheep, became novelist, playwright and film exhibitor on his return to Britain in 1918. Eventually he would observe success with The First Born (1928), which he directed and acted in and which was based on his own novel and play. ...

52. Fred C. Newmeyer

Director | Safety Last!

Fred C. Newmeyer was a professional baseball player from 1909-13 before beginning his career as an extra at Universal Pictures. He worked his way up the ladder to become a prop man, then assistant director and, finally, director. Notable among his films are Seven Keys to Baldpate (1925) with ...

53. Basil Dean

Producer | Whom the Gods Love

Basil Dean first appeared as an actor on the British stage in 1906. He soon switched careers and began writing and directing plays. Turning to the film industry, he became a producer and director in 1928; many of the films he produced and directed were based on his own stage plays.

54. John E. Blakeley

Producer | Off the Dole

John E. Blakeley was born on October 1, 1888 in Ardwick, Manchester, England, UK. He was a producer and writer, known for Off the Dole (1935), Home Sweet Home (1945) and Holiday's with Pay (1948). He was married to Martha Isabella Moorby. He died on February 20, 1958 in Stockport, Cheshire, England...

55. Paul Hurst

Actor | Gone with the Wind

An American character actor of prodigious output who also directed and wrote silent films, Paul Hurst spent much of his early work in low-budget westerns. A native of Traver, California (in the San Joaquin Valley), Hurst had first-hand knowledge of western lore, growing up surrounded by the ...

56. Richard Eichberg

Director | Der Tiger von Eschnapur

Traversing a consistent middle road between artistry and more prosaic mainstream fare was the German director Richard Eichberg. Though he had enjoyed moderate success as an actor on the stage from 1906, Eichberg soon focused his energies on the burgeoning film industry. His career as a director/...

57. Frances Marion

Writer | The Big House

The most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century, and one of the most respected scripters of any gender, Frances Marion was born in San Francisco. She modeled and acted and had some success as a commercial artist. She entered into journalism and served in Europe as a combat correspondent ...

58. Will Hay

Actor | Oh, Mr. Porter!

William Thompson Hay was probably one of the most versatile of entertainers. He was not only a character comedian of the first rank, but was also an astronomer of high repute - he discovered the spot on the planet Saturn in 1933 - and a fully qualified air pilot; he was once an engineer. Born in ...

59. Thea von Harbou

Writer | Metropolis

Thea von Harbou was born on December 27, 1888 in Tauperlitz, Döhlau, Bavaria, Germany. She was a writer and director, known for Metropolis (1927), M (1931) and Woman in the Moon (1929). She was married to Fritz Lang and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. She died on July 1, 1954 in Berlin, Germany.

60. F.W. Murnau

Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air ...

61. Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writer | Gertrud

The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the ...

62. Victor Fleming

Director | Gone with the Wind

Victor Fleming entered the film business as a stuntman in 1910, mainly doing stunt driving - which came easy to him, as he had been a mechanic and professional race-car driver. He became interested in working on the other side of the camera, and eventually got a job as a cameraman on many of the ...

63. Musidora

Actress | Les vampires

Musidora was a French actress, film director, and writer. She is particularly remembered for portraying the vamp villainess Irma Vep in the crime serial film "Les Vampires" (1915-1916) and the gang leader Diana Monti/Marie Verdier in the revenge-themed film serial film "Judex" (1917). Her screen ...

64. W.S. Van Dyke

Director | The Thin Man

For the better part of his career, Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke lived up to his sobriquet "One-Take Woody" by steadfastly adhering to his credo of shooting each scene as quickly and efficiently as possible. Over his 25-year career, he economically directed over 90 diverse entertainments, which not ...

65. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

66. Wesley Ruggles

Director | London Town

The younger brother of Hollywood character player Charles Ruggles, Wesley Ruggles spent most of his early years in San Francisco. He attended university there, began a lengthy apprenticeship in stock and musical comedy and then joined Keystone in Hollywood as an actor in 1914 working alongside Syd ...

67. Alfred E. Green

Director | The Jolson Story

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...

68. Jean Cocteau

Writer | La Belle et la Bête

Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei...

69. James Whale

Director | Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his four classic horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He also directed films in other genres, including what is ...

70. William Keighley

Director | The Adventures of Robin Hood

William Keighley's professional career spanned three distinct mediums: the theatre, motion pictures and, finally, radio. Initially trained as a stage actor and Broadway director, he arrived in Hollywood shortly after the advent of sound, landing a job with Warner Brothers (where he spent most of ...

71. Robert Z. Leonard

Director | The Great Ziegfeld

Chicago-born Robert Z. Leonard studied law at the University of Colorado, but the legal profession proved not to be his forte and he dropped out in favor of a career in the theatre. When his family moved to Hollywood in 1907 Leonard sought work in the fledgling film industry, starting as an actor ...

72. Abel Gance

Writer | La roue

Born an illegitimate son of a wealthy physician, Abel Flamant, and a working class mother, Francoise Perethon. He was raised by his mother and her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Adolphe Gance. Pressured by his parents, he began his working career as a lawyer's clerk in hopes of achieving ...

73. Lloyd Bacon

Director | Wonder Bar

One of the workhorses in Warner Brothers' stable of directors in the 1930s, Lloyd Bacon didn't have a career as loaded with classic films as many of his more famous contemporaries. What few "classics" he had his hand in (42nd Street (1933), Footlight Parade (1933)) are so overshadowed by the ...

74. Karl Freund

Cinematographer | Metropolis

Karl Freund, an innovative director of photography responsible for development of the three-camera system used to shoot television situation comedies, was born on January 16, 1890, in the Bohemian city of Koeniginhof, then part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire (now known as Dvur Kralove in the Czech...

75. Edgar Kennedy

Actor | Duck Soup

Edgar Kennedy, who was born on April 26, 1890, near Monterey, California, hit the road as a young man and traveled across the country, working in a succession of jobs. He became a professional boxer, claiming to have gone 14 rounds against The Manassas Mauler, Jack Dempsey.

In addition to his ...

76. Clarence Brown

Director | Anna Karenina

Clarence Leon Brown was the son of Larkin Harry and Catherine Ann (Gaw) Brown of Clinton, Massachusetts. His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was 12 years old. He graduated from Knoxville High School in 1905 and from the University of Tennessee with a B.A. in mechanical and electrical ...

77. William A. Seiter

Director | The Cheerful Fraud

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, ...

78. Stan Laurel

Actor | Saps at Sea

Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles ...

79. Gideon Wahlberg

Writer | Baldevins bröllop

Gideon Wahlberg was born on June 18, 1890 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a writer and actor, known for Baldwin's Wedding (1938), Än leva de gamla gudar (1937) and Send Home Number 7 (1937). He died on May 3, 1948.

80. Man Ray

Director | Home Movies

American painter and artist in various media who participated in a few films. He helped found the Dada movement and was the prime American participant in the Surrealist movement. An American expatriate to Paris in the 1920s, he was a member of the so-called "Lost Generation" of creative minds ...

81. Gunnar Sommerfeldt

Director | En Lykkeper

Gunnar Sommerfeldt was born on September 4, 1890. He was an actor and director, known for En Lykkeper (1918), Lykkens galoscher (1921) and Markens grøde (1921). He died on August 30, 1947.

82. Naima Wifstrand

Actress | Smultronstället

Raised by a single mother, she grew up in a poor home at Fleminggatan in Stockholm. She was working extra in a small shop for sewing materials and the owner encouraged her acting dreams. In 1905 she was accepted to accompany the Anna Lundberg travelling theatre company around Sweden. This led to ...

83. Fritz Lang

Actor | Le mépris

Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...

84. Archie Mayo

Director | Vengeance

A stage actor, Archie Mayo went to Hollywood in 1915 and worked until his retirement in 1946. He began directing slapstick two-reelers, later making features at Warner Bros. just about the time sound was being introduced into films. He did much work for Warners, but he also made films at Goldwyn ...

85. Edmund Goulding

Director | Grand Hotel

London-born Edmund Goulding was an actor/playwright/director on the London stage, and entered the British army when WWI broke out. Mustered out of the service because of wounds suffered in battle, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1921. He obtained assignments as a screenwriter in Hollywood, wrote a ...

86. Jack Buchanan

Actor | The Band Wagon

Born in Scotland, Jack Buchanan made his stage acting debut in Britain in 1912, and on Broadway in 1924. Though he made his film debut in 1917 during the silent film era, Buchanan is probably best remembered for The Band Wagon (1953), co-starring with Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, ...

87. Marshall Neilan

Actor | Daddy-Long-Legs

In the early days of silent pictures, Marshall Neilan was a top director for Goldwyn Pictures. He had also directed a small number of Louis B. Mayer's independently produced melodramas, but there was a mutual dislike between the two men. During the festivities inaugurating the merger of Metro and ...

88. Wallace Reid

Actor | Carmen

The son of writer-theater producer-director-actor Hal Reid, Wallace was on stage by the age of four in the act with his parents. He spent most of his early years, not on the stage, but in private schools where he excelled in music and athletics. In 1910, his father went to the Chicago studio of "...

89. Irving Pichel

Director | Destination Moon

Irving Pichel was born on June 24, 1891 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Destination Moon (1950), Dracula's Daughter (1936) and Tomorrow Is Forever (1946). He was married to Violette Wilson. He died on July 13, 1954 in Hollywood, California, USA.

90. Rowland V. Lee

Director | The Count of Monte Cristo

Coming from a show business family (his parents were stage actors), Rowland V. Lee began his career as a child actor in stock and on Broadway. He interrupted his stage career for a stint as a Wall Street stockbroker, but gave that up after two years and returned to the stage. Lee was hired by ...

91. Burt Gillett

Director | A Haunting We Will Go

Burt Gillett was an animator from the state of New York, and a notable director of animated short films. He directed about a 100 short films between 1920 and 1940, but is best remembered for directing "Three Little Pigs" (1933) for the Disney studio.

Gillett started his film career c. 1916, when he ...

92. Vassil Gendov

Director | Buntat na robite

Vasil Dimov Gendov (Vasil Dimov Hadzhigendov) is a Bulgarian director , actor and playwright . He is the author of the first Bulgarian film " Bulgarian is gallant " (screened on January 13, 1915 old style), a comedy in the style of Max Linder. Vasil Gendov was born on November 24, 1891 in Sliven, ...

93. George Marshall

Director | How the West Was Won

George Marshall was a versatile American director who came to Hollywood to visit his mother and "have a bit of fun". Expelled from Chicago University in 1912, he was an unsettled young man, drifting from job to job, variously employed as a mechanic, newspaper reporter and lumberjack with a logging ...

94. Hal Roach

Producer | One Million B.C.

Hal Roach was born in 1892 in Elmira, New York. After working as a mule skinner, wrangler and gold prospector, among other things, he wound up in Hollywood and began picking up jobs as an extra in comedies, where he met comedian Harold Lloyd in 1913 in San Diego. By all accounts, including his own,...

95. William Beaudine

Director | The Ape Man

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 ...

96. Oliver Hardy

Actor | Saps at Sea

Although his parents were never in show business, as a young boy Oliver Hardy was a gifted singer and, by age eight, was performing with minstrel shows. In 1910 he ran a movie theatre, which he preferred to studying law. In 1913 he became a comedy actor with the Lubin Company in Florida and began ...

97. Augusto Genina

Director | Cielo sulla palude

Augusto Genina was born on January 28, 1892 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Cielo sulla palude (1949), Bengasi (1942) and L'assedio dell'Alcazar (1940). He was married to Carmen Boni. He died on September 18, 1957 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

98. Ernst Lubitsch

Director | To Be or Not to Be

From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...

99. Alan Hale

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Alan Hale decided on a film career after his attempt at becoming an opera singer didn't pan out. He quickly became much in demand as a supporting actor, starred in several films for Cecil B. DeMille and directed others for him. With the advent of sound, Hale played leads in a few films but soon ...

100. Gregory La Cava

Director | My Man Godfrey

A former cartoonist, Gregory La Cava entered films during WWI as an animator for Walter Lantz on such animated films as "The Katzenjammer Kids" series. Hired by the Hearst Corp. as the editor-in-chief for its International Comic Films division, La Cava switched to live-action films in the 1920s and...