H. Bruce Humberstone(1901-1984)
- 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.
