Directors〘Old Hollywood〙
by angeliki_spatki | created - 31 Jan 2019 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicDirectors of the old Hollywood ↘see also directors American (•_•) see also Directors in Action related, images list ↘see also Old maîtres images list
1. Orson Welles
Actor | Citizen Kane
His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...
The Lady from Shangai 1946, The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 b. US l. US
2. D.W. Griffith
Director | The Birth of a Nation
David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 ...
3. Frank Borzage
Director | Bad Girl
Frank Borzage was born on April 23, 1894 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Bad Girl (1931), 7th Heaven (1927) and No Greater Glory (1934). He was married to Juanita Scott, Edna Skelton and Rena Rogers. He died on June 19, 1962 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, ...
Moonrise 1948
4. Alfred Hitchcock
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...
North to Northwest 1959, To catch a thief 1955, Rear Window 1954, Dial M for Murder 1954, Spellbound 1945, Rebecca 1940 - b.UK l. US
5. Otto Preminger
Actor | Stalag 17
Otto Ludwig Preminger was born in Wiznitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary. His father was a prosecutor, and Otto originally intended to follow his father into a law career; however, he fell in love with the theater in his 20's and became one of the most imaginative stage producers and directors. He was ...
Advise & Consent 1962, River of no Return 1954, Where the Sidewalk Ends 1950
6. Jules Dassin
Director | Du rififi chez les hommes
Jules Dassin was an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and actor best known for his films Rififi (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), and Topkapi (1964).
He was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was one of eight children of Russian-Jewish ...
Night and the City 1950
7. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
The Last Tycoon 1974, On the Waterfront, America, America 1963, East of Eden 1955 US GR (origine)
8. Billy Wilder
Writer | The Apartment
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...
The apartment 1960, Some like it hot 1959, Witness for the Prosecution 1957, Sunset Boulevard 1950 US
9. Leo McCarey
Director | An Affair to Remember
Leo McCarey was born on October 3, 1896 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for An Affair to Remember (1957), Going My Way (1944) and Love Affair (1939). He was married to Virginia Stella Martin. He died on July 5, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
10. John Ford
Director | The Quiet Man
John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...
Young Mr. Lincoln 1954, Grapes of Wrath 1940 (# 223) US
11. Jean Negulesco
Director | Boy on a Dolphin
Jean Negulesco made his reputation as a director of both polished, popular entertainments as well as critically acclaimed dramatic pictures in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Craiova, Romania, he left home at age 12, ending up in Paris. He earned some money washing dishes, which paid for his art ...
The Pleasure Seakers 1964, Boy on a Dolphin 1957, How to marry a millionaire 1953 - b. RM l. US
12. William Wyler
Director | The Best Years of Our Lives
William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...
Come and get it 1936, The Heiress 1949, Ben Hur 1957 (b. DE Alsace, l. d. US)
13. Nunnally Johnson
Writer | The Grapes of Wrath
The son of a railway superintendent, Nunnally Johnson was schooled in Columbus, Georgia, graduating in 1915. He worked for the local newspaper as a delivery boy, became a junior reporter for the Savannah Press and then moved on to New York in 1919. There, his journalistic career really took off, ...
Black Widow 1954
14. 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 ...
Love is a many splendored thing 1953, A bell for Adano 1945
15. 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 ...
The Razor's Edge 1946, Dark Victory 1939 (b. UK, l. US)
16. 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 ...
Man Power 1948
17. Max Ophüls
Director | La ronde
Director Max Ophüls was born Max Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany. He began his career as a stage actor and director in the golden twenties. He worked in cities such as Stuttgart, Dortmund, Wuppertal, Vienna, Frankfurt, Breslau and Berlin. In 1929 his son Marcel Ophüls was born in Frankfurt, ...
Le Plaisir 1952 DE, US (decade 1940's)
18. 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 ...
Gone with the Wind 1939 (# 164) US
19. 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 ...
Trouble in Paradise 1938, To be or not to be, Ninotchka 1939 DE, (worked) US
20. 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...
King Créole 1958, The Jazz Singer 1952, Casablanca 1942, Angels with Dirty Faces 1938, (1886 - 1962) (b. HU, l. US)
21. Norman Taurog
Director | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
A successful child actor (on stage from 1907) and rather less successful romantic lead, baby-faced Norman Taurog found being behind the camera a more rewarding experience. Before becoming a director, he paid his dues as a prop man and editor. By 1919, he was put in charge of two-reel comedies, ...
Spinout 1966 US
22. Richard Thorpe
Director | Knights of the Round Table
After working in vaudeville, on the stage and in early movies, Richard Thorpe launched his directing career in 1923. After directing dozens of low-budget comedies and westerns, his talents were recognized in the mid-'30s when he went to work for MGM. Studio chief Louis B. Mayer valued efficiency in...
Fun in Acapulco 1963, Jailhouse Rock 1957, Knights of the Round Table 1953, Ivanhoe 1952 - (1896 - 1991) US
23. Peter Tewksbury
Director | Father Knows Best
Peter Tewksbury was born on March 21, 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Father Knows Best (1954), It's a Man's World (1962) and My Three Sons (1960). He was married to Ann Schuyler and Kathleen Jean Willoughby. He died on February 20, 2003 in Brattleboro, ...
Stay away, Joe 1968 US
24. 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. ...
Metropolis 1927 (b. AU, l. worked US)
25. Alexander Korda
Director | The Private Life of Don Juan
One of a large group of Hungarian refugees who found refuge in England in the 1930s, Sir Alexander Korda was the first British film producer to receive a knighthood. He was a major, if controversial, figure and acted as a guiding force behind the British film industry of the 1930s and continued to ...
Perfect Strangers 1948 HU
26. Zoltan Korda
Director | Cry, the Beloved Country
A one time Hungarian cavalry officer, Zoltan Korda started working in films as a cameraman then an editor before becoming a director with London Films run by his brother Alexander Korda. Zoltan had strong liberal/socialist ideals and often clashed with Alexander, who, despite their both being born ...
The Macomber Affair 1947, starring Joan Bennett, Gregory Peck
27. Howard Hawks
Director | Rio Bravo
What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...
Gentlemen prefer blondes 1953, Come and get it 1936 US
28. Howard Hughes
Billionaire businessman, film producer, film director, and aviator, born in Humble, Texas just north of Houston. He studied at two prestigious institutions of higher learning: Rice University in Houston and California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Inherited his father's machine ...
The Outlaw 1943
29. George Cukor
Director | My Fair Lady
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of...
My Fair Lady 1964 US
30. Phil Karlson
Director | Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
Phil Karlson entered the film industry while a law student at Loyola Marymount University in California. He got a job at Universal Pictures as a prop man, then worked pretty much any job they threw at him, from being an assistant director on several Bud Abbott and Lou Costello films to directing ...
99 River Street 1955 US
31. Gordon Douglas
Director | Them!
Starting out as a child actor, Gordon Douglas was eventually hired by Hal Roach as a gag writer. His first directorial assignments were for Roach's "Our Gang" series. Graduating to features, Douglas stayed with comedies, directing Oliver Hardy in Zenobia (1939) and both Hardy and Stan Laurel in ...
Follow that dream 1962 US
32. Mark Sandrich
Director | Shall We Dance
Mark Sandrich was born on October 26, 1900 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Shall We Dance (1937), Holiday Inn (1942) and Melody Cruise (1933). He was married to Freda Wirtschafter. He died on March 4, 1945 in Hollywood, California, USA.
The Gay Divorsée 1934
33. Fred Haines
Writer | Ulysses
Born Los Angeles California, grew up in Tucson Arizona. Served in US Navy, 1953-57. Educated at Columbia University, New York, University of Arizona, Tucson, and University of California, Berkeley. Program producer and station manager for Pacifica Radio, 1960-64; assistant to executive story editor...
Steppenwolf US
34. Fred Zinnemann
Director | A Man for All Seasons
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...
From here to eternity 1952, Oklahoma 1955, Act of Violence 1948 AU
35. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Writer | All About Eve
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount ...
All about Eve 1953, Suddenly Last Summer 1959, Cleopatra 1960 US
36. John Rich
Director | All in the Family
John Rich was born on July 6, 1925 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for All in the Family (1971), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to Patricia Dodds, Andrea L. Rich and Sylvia Lewis. He died on ...
Easy come, easy go 1967 US
37. Arthur H. Nadel
Producer | Shazam!
Arthur H. Nadel was born on April 25, 1921 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for Shazam! (1974), Jason of Star Command (1978) and The Virginian (1962). He was married to Adele. He died on February 22, 1990 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Clambake 1967 US
38. Robert D. Webb
Assistant_director | In Old Chicago
Robert Webb comes from a long list of Hollywood notables. His brother, Millard Webb was a silent movie director who was married to dancer Mary Eaton. Robert's sister, Bethel Webb Hoffman was a silent movie actress; while her son and Robert's nephew, Bud Hoffman was a Film Editor at Universal ...
Love me tender 1956 US
39. Hal Kanter
Writer | Julia
Hal Kanter started out writing variety shows and revues for television in the early 1950s. He turned to screenwriting in the mid-1950s, specializing in comedies (he wrote for Bob Hope and Martin & Lewis) but also turning out dramas such as The Rose Tattoo and Let's Make Love. He directed a few ...
Loving you 1957, starring Elvis Presley US
40. Don Siegel
Director | Escape from Alcatraz
Don Siegel was educated at Cambridge University, England. In Hollywood from the mid-'30s, he began his career as an editor and second unit director. In 1945 he directed two shorts (Hitler Lives (1945) and Star in the Night (1945)) which both won Academy Awards. His first feature as a director was ...
No time for flowers 1952 US
41. Gene Nelson
Actor | Oklahoma!
Gene Nelson was barely a teen when he saw the Fred Astaire movie Flying Down to Rio (1933), which would change his life. It was then that he decided he would be a dancer. After graduating from high school, Nelson joined the Sonja Henie Ice Show and toured for 3 years before joining the Army in ...
US
42. George Sidney
Director | Scaramouche
The son of Louis K. Sidney the vice president of M.G.M. and Hazel Mooney of The Mooney Sisters. In his teens he worked as studio messenger going through every department learning the techniques and secrets of the trade. In 1933 he was assigned to direct screen tests of Judy Garland, Robert Taylor ...
US
43. José Quintero
Director | The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
José Quintero was born on October 15, 1924 in Panama City, Panama. He was a director and actor, known for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1975) and Play of the Week (1959). He died on February 26, 1999 in New York City, New York, USA.
The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone 1958 b. PA, l. US
44. Henry Hathaway
Director | True Grit
Henry Hathaway, son of a stage actress and manager, started his career as a child actor in westerns directed by Allan Dwan. His movie career was interrupted by World War I. After his discharge he briefly tried a career in finance but returned to Hollywood to work as an assistant director under such...
Fourteen hours 1951, Niagara 1953 US
45. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
Spartacus 1960 US
46. Vincente Minnelli
Director | An American in Paris
Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the depression as a set ...
The Sandpiper 1966, Lust for Life 1956, The Cobweb 1955 US
47. Nicholas Ray
Director | Rebel Without a Cause
Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in 1911, in small-town Galesville, Wisconsin, to Lena (Toppen) and Raymond Joseph Kienzle, a contractor and builder. He was of German and Norwegian descent. Ray's early experience with film came with some radio broadcasting in high school. He left the ...
The American friend 1977, Rebel without a cause 1955 US
48. Douglas Sirk
Director | Schlußakkord
Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, ...
Imitation of Life 1959 (b. DE, d. CH)
49. Charles Laughton
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...
Witness for the Procecussion 1957 (Actor), The night of the hunter 1955 (b. UK, d. US)
50. George Stevens
Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
Penny Serenade 1941, The Talk of the Town 1942, A place in the Sun 1953, Giant 1956 (more about this movie) ࿑ US
51. John Huston
Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...
The Night of Iguana 1964, The Maltese Falcon 1941 US
52. William A. Graham
Director | Return to the Blue Lagoon
William A. Graham was born on May 15, 1926 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), CBS Playhouse (1967) and Play of the Week (1959). He was married to Betty Graham and Janet Graham. He died on September 12, 2013 in Malibu, ...
53. John Farrow
Writer | Around the World in Eighty Days
John Farrow wrote short stories and plays during his four-year career in the navy. In the late 1920s he came to Hollywood as a technical advisor for a film about Marines and stayed as a screenwriter, from A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927) through Tarzan Escapes (1936). He married Tarzan's Jane, Maureen ...
54. Richard Fleischer
Director | Soylent Green
Richard firmly established his credentials with such epics as The Vikings (1958) , 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Barabbas (1961) and also proved to be a master of intimate drama with Compulsion (1959) , which won Cannes Festival awards for the male stars. He won an Academy Award for one ...
55. Lewis Milestone
Director | All Quiet on the Western Front
Lewis Milestone, a clothing manufacturer's son, was born in Bessarabia (now Moldova), raised in Odessa (Ukraine) and educated in Belgium and Berlin (where he studied engineering). He was fluent in both German and Russian and an avid reader. Milestone had an affinity for the theatre from an early ...
Anything Goes
56. 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 ...
Mata Hari 1931 (uncredited)
57. King Vidor
Director | War and Peace
King Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter of Hungarian descent. He was born in Galveston, Texas to lumberman Charles Shelton Vidor and his wife Kate Wallis. King's paternal grandfather Károly (Charles) Vidor had fled Hungary as a refugee following the failed ...
War and Peace 1956
58. Charles Vidor
Director | Gilda
Hungarian-born Karoly Vidor spent the First World War as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian infantry. Following the armistice, he made his way to Berlin and worked for the German film company Ufa, as editor and assistant director. In 1924, he emigrated to the U.S. and, for several years, earned ...
Love me or leave me 1956, Gilda, co-starring Glenn Ford 1946 b. HO l. US
59. 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 ...
Anna Karenina 1930
60. Josef von Sternberg
Director | The Devil Is a Woman
Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop ...
Blue Angel 1930
61. 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 ...
For whom the bell tolls 1943, Saratonga trunk 1945
62. Cecil B. DeMille
Producer | The Ten Commandments
His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too young to enlist in the Spanish-American War, Cecil followed his brother William C. de Mille to the New ...
Cleopatra 1934
63. Zion Myers
Director | Lucky Dog
Zion Myers was born on June 26, 1898 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Lucky Dog (1933), Sidewalks of New York (1931) and Here Come the Waves (1944). He died on February 24, 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
64. John Sturges
Director | The Great Escape
John Sturges was an American film director, mostly remembered for his outstanding Western films. In 1992, Sturges was awarded a Golden Boot Award for his lifelong contribution to the Western genre.
Sturges was born in the village of Oak Park, Illinois, within the Chicago metropolitan area. By 1930, ...
The Great Escape 1963
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 ...
A countess from Hong Kong 1967, Monsieur Verdoux 1947
66. 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 ...
Marie Antoinette 1938
67. Jerome Robbins
Writer | West Side Story
Jerome Robbins was one of the founding members of the Ballet Theatre when it was formed in 1940 portraying a variety of roles for several years before devising his own creations such as 'Fancy Free' about 3 sailors on leave in New York which marked a long association with Leonard Bernstein. With ...
West side story 1961
68. Robert Wise
Director | West Side Story
Robert Earl Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Olive R. (Longenecker) and Earl Waldo Wise, a meat packer. His parents were both of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. At age nineteen, the avid moviegoer came into the film business through an ...
Two for the seesaw 1962, West side story 1961
69. Richard Wilson
Director | It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles
Richard Wilson was born on December 25, 1915 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (1993), The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Raw Wind in Eden (1958). He was married to Elizabeth Wilson. He died on ...
Al Capone 1959, Raw wind in Eden 1958
70. Fred Guiol
Writer | Giant
Fred Guiol was born on February 17, 1898 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Giant (1956), Shane (1953) and The Rainmakers (1935). He was married to Ethel Hall. He died on May 23, 1964 in Bishop, California, USA.
The Rainmakers 1935, Here comes trouble 1948
71. 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 ...
Beyond Mombasa 1956, The blue dahlia 1946
72. Tay Garnett
Director | China Seas
Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter. After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company. Garnett ...
73. Delmer Daves
Writer | An Affair to Remember
Although Delmer Daves obtained a law degree at Stanford University, he never had the opportunity to use it; while still in college, he obtained a job as a prop boy on The Covered Wagon (1923) and after graduation was hired by several film companies as a technical advisor on films with a college ...
A summer place (1959), Parrish (1961), Rome Adventure (1962), Youngblood Hawke (1964)
74. Edward Dmytryk
Director | The Caine Mutiny
Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age ...
Shalako 1968, Raintree County 1957, The Caine Mutinity 1954, The Left hand of God 1954 - (b. CA, l. , d. US)
75. Joshua Logan
Writer | Fanny
Joshua Logan started directing plays while he was still at Princeton and among the first actors he directed were Henry Fonda and James Stewart. His graduation from Princeton was delayed to accompany a classmate to Russia to study with Konstantin Stanislavski, inventor of "method acting". ...
Picnic 1955 US
76. Henry Levin
Director | April Love
A former stage actor and director, Henry Levin had a long and prolific career in films. Entering the business in 1943 as a dialogue director, he graduated to directing features the next year, and turned out films in just about every genre over the next 36 years. His heyday was in the 1960s, when he...
April Love 1957
77. Samuel Goldwyn
Producer | The Best Years of Our Lives
Famed for his relentless ambition, bad temper and genius for publicity, Samuel Goldwyn became Hollywood's leading "independent" producer -- largely because none of his partners could tolerate him for long. Born Shmuel (or Schmuel) Gelbfisz, probably in 1879, in the Jewish section of Warsaw, he was ...
78. Louis B. Mayer
Producer | The Great Secret
Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he ...
79. Marcus Loew
Producer | The Saphead
His film resume belies the fact that he was the most important man in motion pictures at the time of his death. Born as Max Loew in New York City to a poverty-stricken Viennese waiter, his life could've easily gone the the way of many boys of the east side slums, except that he was ...
80. Mervyn LeRoy
Producer | The Wizard of Oz
The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy. While he and his father managed to survive, they lost everything they had. To make money, LeRoy sold newspapers and entered talent contests as a singer. When he entered vaudeville, his act was "LeRoy and Cooper--Two...
Little Women 1949, Waterloo Bridge 1940
81. Sidney Franklin
Director | The Good Earth
Sidney Franklin was involved in amateur filmmaking while still at school. With his brother Chester M. Franklin, he wrote, directed and edited a short film, The Baby (1915), at a cost of $400. Somehow it attracted the interest of D.W. Griffith, who decided to put the brothers to work making ...
The Good Earth 1936, East is West 1922
82. Frank Capra
Director | It's a Wonderful Life
One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...
It's a Wonderful life 1946 b. IT l. US
83. Rouben Mamoulian
Director | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Rouben Mamoulian was born on October 8, 1897 in Tiflis, Russian Empire [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]. He was a director and writer, known for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Applause (1929) and Becky Sharp (1935). He was married to Catharine Azadia Newman. He died on December 4, 1987 in ...
Rings in her fingers 1942
84. Walter Lang
Director | The King and I
Walter Lang entered the film industry in New York when he got a job as a clerk in the office of a film production company. He worked his way up to assistant director, and directed his first film in 1926. By the time sound arrived Lang was already a well-regarded director, but he left the business ...
On the Riviera 1951 b. UK d. UK
85. Anthony Pelissier
Director | Encore
London-born Anthony Pelissier was the son of actress Fay Compton and producer H.G. Pelissier. He became an actor in the 1930s, but soon realized that he was more inclined to making films than appearing in them. In 1937 he got his first screenwriting credit, and remained in that field until his ...
Personal Affair 1953
86. George Roy Hill
Director | The Sting
George Roy Hill was never able to 'hit it off' with the critics despite the fact that 2 of his films - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and The Sting (1973) - had remained among the top 10 box office hits by 1976. His work was frequently derided as 'impersonal' or lacking in stylistic ...
87. Michael Gordon
Director | Cyrano de Bergerac
A stage actor and director, Michael Gordon broke into films in 1940 as a dialogue director, then became a film editor. He directed his first feature in 1942. He started out with low-budget crime thrillers, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s turned out several well-crafted dramas, notably Cyrano ...
Pillow Talk 1959, Cyrano de Bergerac 1950 US
88. Jacques Tourneur
Director | Cat People
Born in Paris in 1904, Tourneur went to Hollywood with his father, director Maurice Tourneur around 1913. He started out as a script clerk and editor for his father, then graduated to such jobs as directing shorts (often with the pseudonym Jack Turner), both in France and America. He was hired to ...
Way of a Gaucho 1950 b. FR, d. FR
89. Anatole Litvak
Director | The Snake Pit
The distinguished film director Anatole Litvak was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev, the son of Jewish parents. His very first job was as a stage hand. In 1915, he became an actor, performing at a little-known experimental theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a teenager, he witnessed the 1917 ...
b. RU, w. US, d. FR
90. Curtis Bernhardt
Director | Kisses for My President
If Curtis Bernhardt is a relative unknown, it's because he didn't direct his first Hollywood feature until 1940 at the age of 41. Bernhardt worked for years in Germany until his Jewish heritage made living there impossible by 1933-- he was arrested by the Gestapo and made a harrowing underground ...
Sirocco 1951 - b. DE d. US
91. Terence Young
Director | Dr. No
Born in Shanghai and Cambridge-educated, Terence Young began in the industry as a scriptwriter. In the 1940s he worked on a variety of subjects, including the hugely popular wartime romance Suicide Squadron (1941), set to Richard Addinsell's rousing "Warsaw Concerto". His original story was devised...
The Jigsaw Man 1984, Mayerling 1967, Thunderball 1965 b. CH, l. US
92. James Kirkwood
Director | In Wrong
A veteran stage actor, James Kirkwood entered films in 1909 as an actor and was soon playing leads in many of D.W. Griffith's early pictures. He turned to directing in 1912, and by 1914 was the favorite director of Mary Pickford, with whom he made nine films; he also co-starred in three of them. ...
Fanchon the Cricket 1915
93. John Brahm
Director | The Twilight Zone
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 ...
94. Charles Barton
Director | A Man's World
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 ...
95. Craig Davidson
Writer | De rouille et d'os
Craig Davidson is known for Rust and Bone (2012), The Fight Machine (2022) and The Saturday Night Ghost Club.
96. Craig H. Davidson
Stunts | Kong: Skull Island
Craig H. Davidson is known for Kong: Skull Island (2017), Jurassic World (2015) and Hawaii Five-0 (2010).
97. Elliott Nugent
An American minor leading man of early Depression-era talkies who played earnest, boyish leads, Ohio-born Elliott Nugent would earn more distinction as a writer, producer and director of stage and film after all was said and done. The son of playwright/producer/actor J.C. Nugent, Elliott was born ...
The Great Gatsby 1949
98. Irving Thalberg
Producer | The Tower of Lies
Irving Grant Thalberg was born in New York City, to Henrietta (Haymann) and William Thalberg, who were of German Jewish descent. He had a bad heart, having contracted rheumatic fever as a teenager and was plagued with other ailments all of his life. He was quite intelligent with a thirst for ...
MGM Co-Founder
99. Louis B. Mayer
Producer | The Great Secret
Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he ...
MGM Founder
100. Irving Rapper
Irving Rapper was one of the last surviving directors from the "Golden Age of Hollywood," passing away on Dec. 20, 1999, at the age of 101, four weeks shy of his 102nd birthday. Rapper is best remembered for the films he made with Bette Davis, including the classics Now, Voyager (1942) and The Corn...
Marjorie Morningstar 1954 ᓚᘏᗢ starring Natalie Wood, Gene Kelly
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