Marshall Neilan

Marshall Neilan
Marshall Neilan, 1920
Born	Marshall Ambrose Neilan April 11, 1891(1891-04-11) San Bernardino, California, USA
Died	October 27, 1958(1958-10-27) (aged 67) Los Angeles, California, USA
Occupation	Actor, Screenwriter, Director, Producer
Spouse	Blanche Sweet (1922–1929) Gertrude Bambrick (1913–1921) 1 Child

Marshall Ambrose Neilan (April 11, 1891 – October 27, 1958) was an American motion picture actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer.

Early life

Born in San Bernardino, California, Neilan was known by most as "Mickey." Following the death of his father, the eleven-year-old Mickey Neilan had to give up on school to work at whatever he could find in order to help support his mother. As a teenager, he began acting in bit parts in live theatre, and in 1910 he got a job driving Biograph Studios executives around Los Angeles there to determine the suitability of the West Coast as a place for a permanent studio.

Career

Neilan made his film debut as part of the acting cast on the American Film Manufacturing Company Western The Stranger at Coyote (1912). Hired by Kalem Studios for their Western film production facility in Santa Monica, Neilan was first cast opposite Ruth Roland. Described as confident, but egotistical at times, Neilan's talent saw him directing films within a year of joining Kalem. After acting in more than seventy silent film shorts for Kalem and directing more than thirty others, Neilan was hired by the Selig Polyscope Company then Bison Motion Pictures and Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. In 1915, Neilan was one of the founding members of the Motion Picture Directors Association along with directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Allan Dwan, and William Desmond Taylor.

At the end of 1916, Neilan was hired by Mary Pickford Films where he directed Pickford in several productions including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The Little Princess in 1917, plus Stella Maris, Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley, M'Liss in 1918, and Daddy-Long-Legs in 1919.

Having all but given up acting, Neilan's directing successes led to him creating his own production company and between 1920 and 1926, Marshall Neilan Productions made eleven feature-length films almost all of which were distributed through First National Pictures. He received critical acclaim for directing and producing such films as Bits of Life and The Lotus Eater. In 1929, he was hired by RKO Radio Pictures but had difficulty adapting to directing the new talkies. That year he directed Rudy Vallee and Marie Dressler in the talking film, The Vagabond Lover and although Dressler received high praise for her acting, the film was a commercial and critical failure.

Early in his career Neilan had done as most others in the pioneering days of film and helped out in many areas of filmmaking through performing, directing, and writing. A talented screenwriter, in 1927 he wrote the original story for the Howard Hughes film, Hell's Angels. Initially, he had also been hired as the film's director, back when it was still a silent, but Hughes' overbearing style forced him to drop out, and he was replaced a few weeks into production by a more pliable director, Edmund Goulding; due to massive reshoots (as well as the recasting of the lead role with Jean Harlow), none of the footage Neilan shot made it into the final film. He was then hired by Hal Roach Studios, for whom he directed a few films in 1930, and he made his final directorial effort in 1937. Having battled alcoholism for a large part of his adult life, twenty years after he made his last film, Neilan returned to acting on the screen in a small role portraying an aging and less than enlightened United States Senator in the Elia Kazan film, A Face In The Crowd.

In recognition of his contribution to the motion picture industry, in 1940 the Directors Guild of America conferred on him an "Honorary Life Member Award." He later received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6233 Hollywood Blvd.

Personal life

Marshall Neilan had married actress Gertrude Bambrick in 1913 with whom he would have a son, Marshall Neilan, Jr.. Marshall, Jr. also worked in the film industry as a successful film editor, working on almost every episode of The Brady Bunch.

Neilan's marriage to Bambrick ended in 1921 and a year later he married actress Blanche Sweet whom he directed on several occasions. They divorced in 1929.

Death

Neilan died in Los Angeles in 1958 of throat cancer. He is interred in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery.

Selected filmography

Actor Ranch Girls on a Rampage (1912) The Wooers of Mountain Kate (1912) Fatty's Busy Day (1913) The Wall of Money (1913) Judith of Bethulia (1914) Ham the Iceman (1914) Put Me Off at Wayville (1915) Madame Butterfly (1915) A Girl of Yesterday (1915) Calamity Anne, Guardian (1916) The Crisis (1916) Daddy-Long-Legs (1919) Broadway Gold (1923) A Star is Born (Uncredited, 1937) A Face in the Crowd (Uncredited, 1957) Director The American Princess (1913) Rube, the Interloper (1914) The Chronicles of Bloom Center (1915) The Prince Chap (1916) Freckles (1917) Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918) Out of a Clear Sky (1918) The Unpardonable Sin (1919) Go and Get It (1920) Bits of Life (1921) The Lotus Eater Fools First (1922) The Eternal Three (1923) Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924) Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1924) The Great Love (1925) The Sporting Venus (1925) Wild Oats Lane (1926) Her Wild Oat (1927) Taxi 13 (1928) The Vagabond Lover (1929) Forever Yours (1930) Sweethearts on Parade (1930) War Mamas (1931) Chloe, Love Is Calling You (1934) This Is the Life (1935) Thanks for Listening (1937)

Producer The River's End (1920) Don't Ever Marry (1920) Go and Get It (1920) Dinty (1920) Bob Hampton of Placer (1921) Bits of Life (1921) The Lotus Eater (1921) Penrod (1922) Fools First (1922) The Strangers' Banquet (1922) Wild Oats Lane (1926) Everybody's Acting (1926) Tanned Legs (1929) Social Register (1934) Writer Saved from Court Martial (1912) The Reformation of Dad (Story, 1913) The Wall of Money (1913) Si's Wonderful Mineral Spring (1914) Ham the Iceman (Story, 1914) The Winning Whiskers (Story, 1914) The Reformation of Ham (1914) Ham at the Garbage Gentleman's Ball (1915) The Come Back of Percy (Scenario, 1915) The Cycle of Fate (1916) The Country That God Forgot (Story, 1916) A Strange Adventure (Story, 1917) Dinty (1920) Bits of Life (1921) Minnie (1922) The Strangers' Banquet (1922) The Eternal Three (1923) The Great Love (1925) Mike (1926) Hell's Angels (Story, 1930) Chloe, Love Is Calling You (Story and screenplay, 1934) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Uncredited, 1938)

External links

Biography portal

• Marshall Neilan at the Internet Movie Database
• Marshall Neilan at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Neilan, Marshall
Alternative names	Neilan, Marshall Ambrose
Short description	Actor, Screenwriter, Director, Producer
Date of birth	April 11, 1891
Place of birth	San Bernardino, California, USA
Date of death	October 27, 1958
Place of death	Los Angeles, California, USA