J.P. McGowan

Birthday: February 24th, 1880 Date of Death: March 26th, 1952

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.