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IMDbPro

Jack Conway(1887-1952)

  • Director
  • Actor
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Jack Conway
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 Thalberg and his production supervisors. The overall MGM strategy was to streamline efficiency and achieve tighter fiscal control by curbing the power of the director. Deeply suspicious of creative, individualistic filmmakers who would jeopardize the "studio look", Thalberg and MGM chief Louis B. Mayer hoped to prevent such budgetary excesses as had been perpetrated by directors like Erich von Stroheim during the 1920s. Conway contented himself with working under these guidelines. A thoroughly competent craftsman, he delivered commercially successful entertainments on time and within budget.

Conway had started out in the industry as an actor, joining a repertory theatre group straight out of high school. He segued into film acting in 1909. Two years later he became a member of D.W. Griffith's stock company, appearing primarily as a leading man in westerns. In 1913 he made his mark as a director and gained valuable experience at Universal (1916-17, 1921-23) before moving on to MGM in 1925. He directed the studio's first sound picture, Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928). He remained under contract until 1948, often in charge of prestige assignments featuring the studio's top male star, Clark Gable: Boom Town (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), The Hucksters (1947)--all solid box-office gold. For his most famous film, A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Conway utilized 17,000 extras in the Paris mob scenes alone. This spectacular adaptation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens is still regarded by many as the definitive screen version.

Another popular hit was the sophisticated all-star comedy Libeled Lady (1936), the "New York Times" reviewer commenting on Conway's "agile direction" (Oct. 31, 1936). The journeyman director may not have achieved fame as a creative genius, yet the majority of his films remain eminently entertaining to this day. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.
BornJuly 17, 1887
DiedOctober 11, 1952(65)
BornJuly 17, 1887
DiedOctober 11, 1952(65)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Awards

Photos27

Mary Alden, Jack Conway, and Billie West in What Might Have Been (1915)
Buck Connors, Jack Conway, Dot Farley, and Wanna Browne in The Price of Crime (1914)
William Brunton, Jack Conway, Charles Edrington, and Arthur Wellington in Birds of Prey (1913)
Jack Conway, Robert Edeson, Charles K. French, and Ann Little in The Mosaic Law (1913)
Jack Conway and Ann Little in The Civilian (1912)
Viola Barry and Jack Conway in The Land of Might (1912)
Jack Conway and Harry Tenbrook in The Counting of Time (1912)
Jack Conway, Eugenie Forde, George Gebhardt, and Harry Tenbrook in The Everlasting Judy (1912)
Jack Conway, Eugenie Forde, George Gebhardt, and Harry Tenbrook in The Everlasting Judy (1912)
Jack Conway in The Everlasting Judy (1912)
Jack Conway in The Everlasting Judy (1912)
Jack Conway and Eugenie Forde in The Little Nugget (1912)

Known for

Wallace Beery in Viva Villa! (1934)
Viva Villa!
6.4
  • Director
  • 1934
Jean Harlow in The Girl from Missouri (1934)
The Girl from Missouri
6.6
  • Director
  • 1934
William Haines in The Smart Set (1928)
The Smart Set
6.4
  • Director
  • 1928
Billie Dove and George O'Brien in The Roughneck (1924)
The Roughneck
6.2
  • Director
  • 1924

Credits

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IMDbPro

Director

  • Elizabeth Taylor, Greer Garson, Peter Lawford, and Walter Pidgeon in Julia Misbehaves (1948)
    Julia Misbehaves
  • Greer Garson in Desire Me (1947)
    Desire Me
    • (uncredited)
  • Clark Gable in The Hucksters (1947)
    The Hucksters
  • June Allyson, Van Johnson, and Marilyn Maxwell in High Barbaree (1947)
    High Barbaree
  • Katharine Hepburn and Turhan Bey in Dragon Seed (1944)
    Dragon Seed
  • Jean-Pierre Aumont and Susan Peters in Assignment in Brittany (1943)
    Assignment in Brittany
  • Hedy Lamarr and William Powell in Crossroads (1942)
    Crossroads
  • Clark Gable and Lana Turner in Honky Tonk (1941)
    Honky Tonk
  • Myrna Loy and William Powell in Love Crazy (1941)
    Love Crazy
  • Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr in Boom Town (1940)
    Boom Town
  • Spencer Tracy and Robert Young in Northwest Passage (1940)
    Northwest Passage
    • (uncredited)
  • Hedy Lamarr, Robert Taylor, and Joseph Schildkraut in Lady of the Tropics (1939)
    Lady of the Tropics
  • Virginia Bruce and Nelson Eddy in Let Freedom Ring (1939)
    Let Freedom Ring
  • Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo, and Walter Pidgeon in Too Hot to Handle (1938)
    Too Hot to Handle
  • Maureen O'Sullivan and Robert Taylor in A Yank at Oxford (1938)
    A Yank at Oxford

Actor

  • Roof Tops of Manhattan (1935)
    Roof Tops of Manhattan
  • The Lure of the Orient
  • The Killer (1921)
    The Killer
  • A Royal Democrat
  • Alma Rubens in Restless Souls (1919)
    Restless Souls
  • The Little Orphan (1917)
    The Little Orphan
  • The Smashing Stroke
  • Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Constance Collier, MACBETH, Triangle-Reliance, 1916, **I.V.
    Macbeth
  • Bitter Sweet
    • (unconfirmed)
  • Seena Owen in The Mystic Jewel (1915)
    The Mystic Jewel
  • The Man of It
  • Added Fuel
  • Captain Macklin (1915)
    Captain Macklin
  • Mae Marsh in The Outcast (1915)
    The Outcast
  • Mary Alden, Jack Conway, and Billie West in What Might Have Been (1915)
    What Might Have Been

Producer

  • Jean Harlow in The Girl from Missouri (1934)
    The Girl from Missouri
  • Jimmy Durante, Madge Evans, Walter Huston, and Robert Montgomery in Hell Below (1933)
    Hell Below
    • (uncredited)
  • William Haines and Irene Purcell in Just a Gigolo (1931)
    Just a Gigolo
    • (uncredited)
  • Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rod La Rocque, and Edward J. Nugent in Our Modern Maidens (1929)
    Our Modern Maidens
    • (uncredited)
  • William Haines in The Smart Set (1928)
    The Smart Set

Personal details

Edit
    • July 17, 1887
    • Graceville, Minnesota, USA
    • October 11, 1952
    • Pacific Palisades, California, USA(pulmonary disease)
    • Virginia BushmanSeptember 21, 1926 - October 11, 1952 (his death, 2 children)
    • Pat Conway
  • Stage actor and film director.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Interview
    • 13 Articles

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Starred in one of the earliest movies ever filmed in Hollywood, Her Indian Hero (1912).

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