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J.P. McGowan

J.P. McGowan

director,actor,writer

  • Gender:
  • Birthday: 1880-02-24
  • Day of Death: 1952-03-26 ( 72 years old )
  • Place of Birth:
  • Also Known As:
  • IMDB:nm0569645
  • From Wikipedia

    John Paterson McGowan (February 24, 1880 – March 26, 1952)

    was a pioneering Hollywood actor and director and occasionally a screenwriter

    and producer. J. P. McGowan, as he was usually known, remains the only

    Australian to have been made a life member of the Screen Directors Guild (now

    Directors Guild of America).

    Born in the then-bustling railway centre of Terowie in South

    Australia, McGowan grew up in Adelaide (Islington) and Sydney. He was a capable

    horseman and served in the Second Boer War with Montmorency’s Scouts as a special

    dispatch rider.

    McGowan directed and often acted in the first 33 episodes of

    Kalem’s 1914 adventure film series, The Hazards of Helen, which eventually ran

    to 54 episodes, some still with McGowan’s participation. While filming he began

    a relationship with Helen Holmes, the film’s star, and the two married. They

    left Kalem to set up their own production company, Signal Films, which

    successfully made a series of railroad melodramas but lost out when their

    distributor (Mutual) failed. The collaboration ended when they divorced in

    1925. There was an adopted daughter, Kaye.

    McGowan successfully made the transition from silent film to

    talkies. While never a major star, in a busy career that spanned four decades

    he is credited with acting in 232 films—mostly strong roles like sheriff or

    villain—writing 26 screenplays and directing 242 productions. In 1932 he

    directed a young John Wayne in the 12-episode rail vs airplane serial The

    Hurricane Express for the independent Mascot Pictures. From 1938 to 1951, as

    Executive Secretary of the Screen Directors Guild, he fought to secure

    recognition for the director within the studio systems of the film and emerging

    television industry.

    J.P. McGowan died in 1952 in Hollywood and was interred in

    the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

J.P. McGowan Movies (504) · · · ALL