Stuart_Walker_(director)

Stuart Walker (director)

Stuart Walker (director)

American director and producer (1888–1941)


Stuart Armstrong Walker (March 4, 1888 – March 13, 1941) was an American director and producer in theatre and motion pictures.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Biography

Walker reading the stage adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen with actress Lillian Ross, who played the role of Jane in the Broadway production (1918)

Stuart Walker was born March 4, 1888, in Augusta, Kentucky, the son of Cliff Stuart Walker and Matilda Taliaferro Armstrong Walker. After attending public school in Cincinnati and graduating from the University of Cincinnati, he went to work for David Belasco and made his debut as an actor in 1909. He became a play reader for Belasco, and directed plays including The Governor's Lady (1912). In 1914 Walker joined Jessie Bonstelle as a director in Detroit and Buffalo.[1]

In 1915, Walker organized the Portmanteau Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company. He produced seasons in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville and New York City. He staged the first dramatization of Booth Tarkington's bestselling novel Seventeen,[1] presented on Broadway in 1918 starring Gregory Kelly and his future wife, newcomer Ruth Gordon.[2]

Walker's repertory company was active throughout the 1920s.[3] Its credits include the first American performance of Alberto Casella's supernatural drama Death Takes a Holiday, adapted by Walter Ferris, in 1929.[4]

In 1930, Walker became a screenwriter in Hollywood,[1] and served as dialogue director on films including Brothers and The Last of the Lone Wolf.[5] He directed his first feature film the following year, and in 1936 he became a producer for Paramount Pictures.[1]

Walker died March 13, 1941, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, following a heart attack.[1]

Filmography

Director

Signed drawing of Stuart Walker by Manuel Rosenberg for the Cincinnati Post 1926
Douglass Montgomery, Claude Rains and David Manners in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)

Producer

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References

  1. "Stuart Walker, 53, Producer, Is Dead". The New York Times. March 14, 1941. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  2. "Walker Company Opening". The Indianapolis News. Indiana, Indianapolis. April 28, 1928. p. 9. Retrieved June 6, 2016 via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. "Gossip of the Rialto". The New York Times. May 26, 1929. Retrieved 2017-08-26.

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