Film Noir Directors
by karljhickey14 | created - 19 Jun 2014 | updated - 20 Jun 2014 | Public
101. Jerry Hopper
Director | The Private War of Major Benson
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 ...
102. Harry Horner
Production_designer | The Hustler
Harry Horner was born in Bohemia (now Czech Republic), but spent most of his early life in Austria. In 1934, he graduated from the University of Vienna with a degree in architecture. Along the way, he also managed to study dramatic arts, directing and costume design, making his stage debut as an ...
103. 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 ...
104. H. Bruce Humberstone
Director | Wonder Man
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. ...
105. Paul Landres
Director | The Return of Dracula
Paul Landres was born on August 21, 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 December 26, 2001 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.
106. Sidney Lanfield
Director | Hush Money
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 ...
107. 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,...
108. Boris Ingster
Producer | The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Ingster was born in 1903 in Riga of what is now Latvia. He worked with Sergei Eisenstein in Russia before arriving in the United States in 1930. In the 1930's, he worked as a writer for several movies, among them The Story of Alexander Graham Bell. His directorial debut was in the 1940 classic "...
109. Pat Jackson
Director | White Corridors
Pat Jackson began as an editor and co-director of documentaries with the famed GPO Film Unit in the mid-1930s. He worked with such icons of the documentary field as John Grierson and Harry Watt, but it was his World War II semi-documentary Western Approaches (1944) that put him on the map. Praised ...
110. Felix Jacoves
Director | Embraceable You
Felix Jacoves was born on June 2, 1907 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Embraceable You (1948), Romance on the High Seas (1948) and Homicide (1949). He died on May 4, 1961 in Banning, California, USA.
111. Will Jason
Soundtrack | Mighty Aphrodite
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...
112. 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, ...
113. Nathan Juran
Art_director | How Green Was My Valley
Austrian-born Nathan Juran was a professional architect before entering the film industry as an art director in 1937. He won an Academy Award for art direction on How Green Was My Valley (1941). World War II interrupted his film career, and he spent his war years with the OSS. Returning to ...
114. Joseph Kane
Director | Sea of Lost Ships
Joseph Kane's career as a professional cellist ended when he became a film editor in 1926. His directing career started with co-directing serials for Mascot and Republic, and he soon became Republic's top western director. He handled many of John Wayne's Republic westerns of the 1940s, and piloted ...
115. László Kardos
Director | The Man Who Turned to Stone
László Kardos was born on October 8, 1905 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. He was a director and writer, known for The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957), Dark Streets of Cairo (1940) and Small Town Girl (1953). He was married to Lenka Pasternak. He died on April 11, 1962 in Los Angeles, ...
116. 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 ...
117. Gilbert Kay
Director | The Secret Door
Gilbert Lee Kay was born in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in Los Angeles, CA where he landed his first job in the mail room at Columbia Pictures. (Full work history to be completed)
In 1971, Kay married Christine Farey in London, England. The couple's first child, Sonny, was born in March 1972 only ...
118. 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 ...
119. 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 ...
120. Harry Keller
Director | The Brass Bottle
Entering the film business as an editor in 1936, Harry Keller began directing in the late 1940s, and soon was at Republic, specializing in westerns. When that studio folded he went to Universal, directing westerns again, interspersed with some dramas, comedies and war pictures. In the late 1960s he...
121. Burt Kennedy
Director | The War Wagon
American screenwriter and director--particularly of westerns--Burt Kennedy was the son of performers. He was part of their act, "The Dancing Kennedys", from infancy. He served in World War II as a cavalry officer and was highly decorated. After the war he joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse, ...
122. James V. Kern
Writer | The Horn Blows at Midnight
A former attorney and professional singer, James V. Kern started out as a screenwriter and eventually turned to directing. His directorial output consisted of mostly routine "B" pictures, but he found his niche in television, where he directed hundreds of series episodes; he was one of the house ...
123. Irvin Kershner
Director | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Irvin Kershner was born on April 29, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the University of Southern California film school, Kershner began his career in 1950, producing documentaries for the United States Information Service in the Middle East. He later turned to television, directing...
124. Louis King
Director | The Arm of the Law
Louis King was born on June 28, 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 September 7, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
125. Howard W. Koch
Producer | The Manchurian Candidate
Getting his start in the movie business in Universal's contract and playdate department in New York City, Howard W. Koch moved on to 20th Century-Fox as a film librarian and then entered production as second assistant director on The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). After many films as assistant ...
126. 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 ...
127. Harold F. Kress
Editor | The Towering Inferno
Educated at UCLA, Harold F. Kress entered the film business in the late 1930s as an editor. Although he directed a few documentaries and made a stab at directing features, his real niche was as an editor, and he became one of the most respected editors in the industry, winning an Academy Award for ...
128. 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 ...
129. Charles Lamont
Director | Cipher Bureau
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 ...
130. Lew Landers
Director | Pacific Liner
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...
131. 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. ...
132. John Larkin
Writer | Fear and Love: The Story of the Exorcist
John Larkin was born on December 5, 1987 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Fear and Love: The Story of the Exorcist (2024), Stretch Marks (2018) and Hooknasty (2011).
133. 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). ...
134. Arnold Laven
Producer | Geronimo
Laven, Jules V. Levy and Arthur Gardner met in 1943 in the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Force. They were stationed at the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, California (with other notables such as Capt. Ronald Reagan, Capt. Clark Gable and Lt. William Holden), making training films. Levy...
135. Philip Leacock
Director | Gunsmoke
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 ...
136. Reginald Le Borg
Director | The White Orchid
The oldest of three sons, Reginald LeBorg majored in political economy at the University of Austria and studied musical composition for a year at Arnold Schoenberg's Composition Seminar. His education completed, LeBorg entered his father's banking business and, acting as the senior LeBorg's ...
137. Charles Lederer
Writer | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Charles Lederer was born on December 31, 1911 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Thing from Another World (1951) and His Girl Friday (1940). He was married to Anne Shirley and Virginia Nicolson. He died on March 5, 1976 in ...
138. D. Ross Lederman
Director | Shadows of the Night
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 ...
139. Herbert I. Leeds
Director | Just Off Broadway
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 ...
140. Mitchell Leisen
Director | Death Takes a Holiday
Mitchell Leisen was born on October 6, 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 October 28, 1972 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, ...
141. John Lemont
Writer | Kraft Mystery Theater
John Lemont was born in 1914 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a producer and director, known for Kraft Mystery Theater (1961), The Frightened City (1961) and The Errol Flynn Theatre (1956). He died in 2004 in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, UK.
142. 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 ...
143. Irving Lerner
Director | Cry of Battle
Editor/director Irving Lerner got his start in the film business at Columbia University, where he was a research editor on the school's Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and began making documentaries for the school's anthropology department in the early 1930s. He produced documentaries for the ...
144. Mervyn LeRoy
Director | Gypsy
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...
145. 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...
146. Joseph H. Lewis
Director | Gun Crazy
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...
147. 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 ...
148. 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 ...
149. Joseph Losey
Director | The Servant
Belonging to an important family clan in Wisconsin, Joseph Losey studied philosophy but was always interested in theater and thus worked together with Bertolt Brecht. After directing some shorts for MGM, he made his first important film, The Boy with Green Hair (1948), for RKO. While he was filming ...
150. Arthur Lubin
Director | Phantom of the Opera
A graduate of Carnegie Tech, Arthur Lubin entered films as an actor in the 1920s, and after appearing in many films turned to directing in 1934, mainly for Universal. His forte was light comedy, but he helmed many different types of pictures for the studio. Lubin was the director Universal ...
151. Edward Ludwig
Director | Caribbean
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...
152. Ida Lupino
Actress | High Sierra
Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was ...
153. 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.
154. Frank McDonald
Director | Hit Parade of 1947
A former railroad worker, Frank McDonald came to Hollywood after a career on the stage as an actor/producer/director. At first hired as a dialogue director, McDonald turned out some scripts and in the mid-'30s began directing. Working for almost every studio in Hollywood at one time or another, he ...
155. Don McDougall
Director | Jungle Jim
Don McDougall was born on September 28, 1917 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Jungle Jim (1955), Toke (1973) and Star Trek (1966). He died on February 7, 1991 in California, USA.
156. Ranald MacDougall
Writer | Mildred Pierce
Ranald MacDougall was born on March 10, 1915 in Schenectady, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Mildred Pierce (1945), The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) and Cleopatra (1963). He was married to Nanette Fabray and Lucille Margaret Brophy. He died on December 12, 1973 in ...
157. Earl McEvoy
Director | Cargo to Capetown
Earl McEvoy was born on June 12, 1913 in Leominster, Massachusetts, USA. He was an assistant director and director, known for Cargo to Capetown (1950), The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) and The Barefoot Mailman (1951). He died on February 26, 1959 in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA.
158. Alexander Mackendrick
Writer | The Man in the White Suit
One of the most distinguished (if frequently overlooked) directors ever to emerge from the British film industry, Alexander Mackendrick, was in fact born in the US (to Scottish parents), but grew up in his native Scotland, where he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He started out as a ...
159. Gustav Machatý
Director | Ekstase
Gustav Machatý was born on May 9, 1901 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic). His first experience with the motion picture industry was playing piano at movie theaters, accompanying silent pictures. In 1917, he made his debut as an actor.
In the early 1920s, he emigrated to ...
160. 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 ...
161. Anthony Mann
Director | El Cid
Anthony Mann was born on June 30, 1906 in San Diego, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for El Cid (1961), Men in War (1957) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954). He was married to Anna, Sara Montiel and Mildred Mann. He died on April 29, 1967 in London, England.
162. Delbert Mann
Director | Marty
Delbert Mann, the Oscar-winning film director, was born Delbert Martin Mann Jr. in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1920. His father moved the family to Nashville, Tennesse, after taking a teaching position at Scarritt College. The young Mann graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he met his future wife, ...
163. Edwin L. Marin
Director | Invisible Agent
Director Edwin L. Marin was born in Jersey City, NJ, in 1899. He traveled to Hollywood as a young man, and at age 20 got a job in the industry as an assistant cameraman. By 1932 he had crossed over to directing, first for low-budget studio Tiffany Pictures. However, he worked his way up the ...
164. Fletcher Markle
Producer | Thriller
Fletcher Markle was born on March 27, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was a writer and producer, known for Thriller (1960), Studio One (1948) and Jigsaw (1949). He was married to Dorothy Conradt, Mercedes McCambridge and Helen Blanche Willis. He died on May 23, 1991.
165. 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 ...
166. Charles Martin
Writer | On an Island with You
Charles Martin was born on March 12, 1910 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer and director, known for On an Island with You (1948), Death of a Scoundrel (1956) and The Philip Morris Playhouse (1953). He died in December 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
167. Rudolph Maté
Cinematographer | Gilda
One of the most respected cinematographers in the industry, Polish-born Rudolph Mate entered the film business after his graduation from the University of Budapest. He worked in Hungary as an assistant cameraman for Alexander Korda and later worked throughout Europe with noted cameraman Karl Freund...
168. 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 ...
169. Lothar Mendes
Director | The Man Who Could Work Miracles
Lothar Mendes was born on May 19, 1894 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), Moonlight Sonata (1937) and Scheine des Todes (1923). He was married to Dorothy Mackaill. He died on February 25, 1974 in London, England, UK.
170. William Cameron Menzies
Production_designer | Gone with the Wind
William Cameron Menzies was educated at Yale University, the University of Edinburgh and at the Art Students League in New York. He entered the film industry in 1919, after serving with the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in World War I. His initial assignments were in film design and special effects, as...
171. Burgess Meredith
Actor | Clash of the Titans
One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star ...
172. Gerald Mayer
Director | Mission: Impossible
Gerald Mayer was born on June 5, 1919 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for Mission: Impossible (1966), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and The Doctors and the Nurses (1962). He was married to Irene Briller. He died on September 21, 2001 in Santa Monica, ...
173. 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 ...
174. Gene Milford
Editor | On the Waterfront
Gene Milford was born on January 19, 1902 in Lamar, Colorado, USA. She was an editor and director, known for On the Waterfront (1954), Lost Horizon (1937) and Wait Until Dark (1967). She was married to Dorothy Hunter. She died on December 23, 1991 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
175. Ray Milland
Actor | The Lost Weekend
Ray Milland became one of Paramount's most bankable and durable stars, under contract from 1934 to 1948, yet little in his early life suggested a career as a motion picture actor.
Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in the Welsh town of Neath, Glamorgan, to Elizabeth Annie (Truscott) and Alfred ...
176. David Miller
Director | The Story of Esther Costello
David Miller was born on November 28, 1909 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Story of Esther Costello (1957), Twist of Fate (1954) and Flying Tigers (1942). He was married to Frances Raeburn. He died on April 14, 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
177. 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 ...
178. Léonide Moguy
Director | Domani è troppo tardi
Léonide Moguy was born on July 14, 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was a director and writer, known for Tomorrow Is Too Late (1950), Prison sans barreaux (1938) and Bethsabée (1947). He was married to Daan. He died on April 21, 1976 in Paris, France.
179. Edward Montagne
Producer | I Spy
Edward Montagne was born on May 20, 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for I Spy (1955), Project X (1949) and Quincy M.E. (1976). He died on December 15, 2003 in Agoura Hills, California, USA.
180. Robert Montgomery
Actor | Night Must Fall
Robert Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery Jr., the elder son of New York businessman Henry Montgomery and his wife, Mary Weed (Barney), a native of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Montgomery had a younger brother, Donald. He was not related to Belinda Montgomery.
As a child, he enjoyed a ...
181. 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 ...
182. 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.
183. Sam Newfield
Director | State Department: File 649
Legendary "B" picture director Sam Newfield was born Samuel Neufeld in New York City. His brother was Sigmund Neufeld, later the head of PRC Pictures, where Sam made so many of his films (so many, in fact, that he had to use the pseudonyms "Peter Stewart" and "Sherman Scott" so audiences wouldn't ...
184. Joseph M. Newman
Director | 711 Ocean Drive
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...
186. William Nigh
Director | Born Rich
William Nigh was born on October 12, 1881 in Berlin, Wisconsin, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Born Rich (1924), Thunder (1929) and Notorious Gallagher; or, His Great Triumph (1916). He died on November 27, 1955 in Burbank, California, USA.
187. Max Nosseck
Director | The Brighton Strangler
Max Nosseck was born on September 19, 1902 in Nakel, East Prussia, Germany [now Naklo nad Notecia, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland]. He was a director and actor, known for The Brighton Strangler (1945), The Body Beautiful (1953) and Kill or Be Killed (1950). He was married to Ilse Steppat, Genevieve ...
188. 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 ...
189. Arch Oboler
Writer | Five
Arch Oboler was born on December 7, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Five (1951), The Twonky (1953) and One Plus One (1961). He was married to Eleanor Helfand. He died on March 19, 1987 in Westlake Village, California, USA.
190. Edmond O'Brien
Actor | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Oscar-winner Edmond O'Brien was one of the most respected character actors in American cinema, from his heyday of the mid-1940s through the late 1960s. Born on September 10, 1915, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, O'Brien learned the craft of performance as a magician, reportedly tutored by...
191. 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, ...
192. Gerd Oswald
Director | Schachnovelle
Gerd Oswald was born on June 9, 1919 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and assistant director, known for Brainwashed (1960), Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966) and 80 Steps to Jonah (1969). He was married to Marjorie Feinberg and Annabel Magness. He died on May 22, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
193. Fyodor Otsep
Director | Miss Mend
Fyodor Otsep was born on February 9, 1895 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for The Adventures of the Three Reporters (1926), Amok (1934) and Pique Dame (1937). He was married to Anna Sten. He died on June 20, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
194. Norman Panama
Writer | Knock on Wood
Norman Panama was born on April 21, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Knock on Wood (1954), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and White Christmas (1954). He died on January 13, 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
195. Robert Parrish
Director | Casino Royale
Robert Parrish was an Academy Award-winning film editor who also directed and acted in movies. As a child he appeared in films during the early 1930s, such as City Lights (1931) by Charles Chaplin and Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). As an editor he won an Academy Award for ...
196. Joseph Pevney
Director | Star Trek
Joseph Pevney was born on September 15, 1911 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). He was married to Margo Yvette Collins, Philippa Hilber and Mitzi Green. He died on May 18, 2008 ...
197. 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.
198. Abraham Polonsky
Writer | Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
Writer-director Abraham Lincoln Polonsky, one of the most prominent victims of the Hollywood blacklisting of communists and social progressives in the post-World War II period, was born on December 5, 1910, in New York, New York. An unreconstructed Marxist, Polonsky never hid his membership in the ...
199. Dick Powell
Actor | Murder, My Sweet
Few actors ever managed a complete image transition as thoroughly as did Dick Powell: in his case, from the boyish, wavy-haired crooner in musicals to rugged crime fighters in film noirs. Powell grew up in the town of Little Rock, Arkansas, one of three brothers (one of them, Howard, ended up as ...
200. 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 ...
Tell Your Friends