Spencer Gordon Bennet

Spencer Gordon Bennet was born on 5 January 1893 in Brooklyn, New York.

Known as the "King of Serial Directers" he directed more film serials than anybody else. He first entered show business as a stunt man, when he answered a newspaper ad to jump from the Palisades of the Hudson River while wearing a suit for the serial film "Hurricane Hutch". The gig at that time paid $1 per foot he had to fall.

He made his directorial debut in 1921's "Behold The Man" but made his serial directorial debut in 1925 with "Sunken Silver". He would keep making serials, as well as B-Westerns features, until the very end of the genre, directing the very last two made in the United States in 1956, "Blazing the Overland Trail" and "Perils of the Wilderness". After the serials ended he directed a handful of features, his final directorial credit with 1965's "The Bounty Killer" which was also the final film to feature noted cowboy star Gilbert "Broncho Billy" Anderson. When he died in 1987, his tombstone was engraved "His Final Chapter".

Over his long career Bennet directed over a hundred serials including both "Superman" serials, The "Adventures of Sir Galahad", "Batman and Robin", "The Tiger Woman", "", and numerous western serials. Among his western b-features were his long running "Red Ryder" series, featuring Red Barry.

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