King Vidor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
King Vidor
Image:KingVidor01.jpg
Birth name King Wallis Vidor
Born February 8, 1894
Image:Flag of the United States.svg Galveston, Texas, USA
Died November 1 1982 (aged 88)
Image:Flag of the United States.svg Paso Robles, California, USA
Spouse(s) Florence Vidor (1915-1924)
Eleanor Boardman (1926-1931)
Elizabeth Hill Vidor (1932-1982)

King Wallis Vidor (February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an acclaimed Hungarian-American film director whose career spanned eight decades.

He was born in Galveston, Texas, where he survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

Contents

[edit] Career

A freelance newsreel cameraman and cinema projectionist, he made his debut as a director in 1913 with Hurricane in Galveston. In Hollywood from 1915, he worked on a variety of film-related jobs before directing a feature film, The Turn in the Road, in 1919. A successful mounting of Peg o' My Heart in 1922 got him a long term contract with Goldwyn Studios, later to be absorbed into MGM. Three years later he made The Big Parade, among the most acclaimed war films of the silent era, and a tremendous commercial success. This success established him as one of MGM's top studio directors for the next decade. In 1928, Vidor received his first Oscar nomination, for The Crowd, widely regarded as his masterpiece and one of the greatest American silent films. In the same year, he made the classic Show People, the last silent film of Marion Davies, a comedy about the film industry in which Vidor had a cameo as himself.

Vidor's first sound film was Hallelujah!, a groundbreaking film featuring an African American cast, and in which he established the new language for sound films (Which is still used today by most directors). His directorial career extended well in to the sound era and he continued making feature films until the late 1950s. Some of his better known sound films include Stella Dallas, Our Daily Bread, The Citadel, Duel in the Sun, The Fountainhead, and War and Peace. He directed the Kansas sequences in The Wizard of Oz (including "Over the Rainbow") when director Victor Fleming had to replace George Cukor on Gone with the Wind, but never received screen credit.

Vidor entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest career as a film director: beginning in 1913 with Hurricane in Galveston and ending in 1980 with a short documentary on painting entitled The Metaphor. He was nominated five times for an Oscar but never won in direct competition; he received an honorary award in 1979.

[edit] Personal life

In 1967, Vidor researched the unsolved 1922 murder of fellow director William Desmond Taylor for a possible screenplay. Vidor never published or wrote of this research during his lifetime, but biographer Sidney D. Kirkpatrick posthumously examined Vidor's notes. He alleged in his 1986 book Cast of Killers that Vidor had solved the sensational crime but kept his conclusions private to protect individuals still living at the time. The widely cited newsletter Taylorology later noted over 100 factual errors in Cast of Killers and strongly disputes Kirkpatrick's conclusions but credits the book with renewing popular interest in the crime.

Vidor published his autobiography, A Tree is A Tree, in 1976. This book's title is inspired by an incident early in Vidor's Hollywood career. Vidor wanted to film a movie in the locations where its story was set, a decision which would have greatly added to the film's production budget. A budget minded producer told him, "A rock is a rock. A tree is a tree. Shoot it in Griffith Park" (a nearby public space which was frequently used for film exterior shots).

Vidor was married three times:

  1. Florence Arto (1917-1924; one daughter
  2. Eleanor Boardman (1926-1931); two daughters
    • Antonia (born 1927)
    • Belinda (born 1930)
  3. Elizabeth Hill (1932-1982)

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by King Vidor
1910s Hurricane in Galveston • The Grand Military Parade • The Lost Lie • Bud's Recruit • The Chocolate of the Gang • Tad's Swimming Hole • The Accusing Toe • I'm a Man • The Turn in the Road • Better Times • The Other Half • Poor Relations
1920s The Family Honor • The Jack-Knife Man • The Sky Pilot • Love Never Dies • Real Adventure • Dusk to Dawn • Conquering the Woman • Peg o' My Heart • The Woman of Bronze • Three Wise Fools • Wild Oranges • Happiness • Wine of Youth • His Hour • The Wife of the Centaur • Proud Flesh • The Big Parade • La Bohème • Bardelys the Magnificent • The Crowd • The Patsy • Show People • Hallelujah!
1930s Not So Dumb • Billy the Kid • Street Scene • The Champ • Bird of Paradise • Cynara • The Stranger's Return • Our Daily Bread • The Wedding Night • So Red the Rose • The Texas Rangers • Stella Dallas • The Wizard of Oz
1940s Northwest Passage • Comrade X • H. M. Pulham, Esq. • An American Romance • Duel in the Sun • On Our Merry Way • The Fountainhead • Beyond the Forest
1950s Lightning Strikes Twice • Japanese War Bride • Ruby Gentry • Man Without a Star • War and Peace • Solomon and Sheba
1960s The Metaphor
de:King Vidor

es:King Vidor eu:King Vidor fr:King Vidor it:King Vidor hu:King Vidor ja:キング・ヴィダー pt:King Vidor

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/King_Vidor"
Views
Personal tools

Toolbox