Allan Dwan, a director from the time of silent movies, is known as an actor’s director. With a background in engineering, he tried to make movies that were both cheaper and better. His shots had a dramatic look because he could see a scene in his mind down to the smallest details and then put them on film. He always used logic to solve problems when making movies. He came up with techniques and ways of doing things that later became the norm. People say that he was the first director to use tools like cranes and dolly back then. On the list of movies he directed, there are more than 400. About 300 of them are silent shorts, and the rest are feature films. He might have worked on as many as 1500 movies as a writer, actor, producer, or director. When talkies came out, it hurt his career. Even though he made a lot of movies, this director never got to work on any big ones. He was known as an actor’s director because he liked to get to know his actors and always gave them the chance to say what they thought and felt. He became a model for many of the directors who work today. Peter Bogdanovich called Allan “The Last Pioneer” in an interview for his book.
Early years and childhood
On April 3, 1885, Joseph Aloysius Dwan was born in Ontario, Canada. He was later given the name Allan Dwan because kids at school made fun of him for having a girly name. Then, when he was only eight years old, his family moved from Canada to the United States.
Then, he went to the well-known University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA, to get a degree in engineering.
Allan Dwan’s Career
Allan’s first job was as an engineer for a Chicago lighting company. The production company “Essanay Studios” was a client of the company he worked for. When he went to the studio to check on how the lights were set up, he met movie producer George Spoor. In 1909, he sent his writings to Hollywood’s studio and was offered a job as a scriptwriter. This was the start of his relationship with Hollywood.
His story about how he became a director is very funny. This man used to work as a scriptwriter for a movie company in La Mesa, California, called Flying A Studios. In August 1911, when one of the banner’s movies was being made, he was asked to find out where the director was.
Later, it was found out that this director had left town after a drinking binge, and Allan was given the job of directing the movie.
He then worked with “Flying A Studios” until 1913, directing as many as fifty Westerns with Pauline Bush, who was a newcomer at the time. In the end, he married her.
From 1913 to 1915, he worked at “Universal Pictures.” There, he reportedly directed twenty movies, such as “A Girl of Yesterday,” which starred Mary Pickford.
Then, he made a series of successful movies with famous actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who was called the “power couple” of the movie business at the time. Allan directed as many as ten movies with Fairbanks in them, starting with “The Habit of Happiness,” which came out in 1916.
The movies “An Innocent Magdalene” and “Betty of Greystone,” which starred Lillian and Dorothy Gish, were also made by this director in 1916. Both of these movies were about women and their lives.
Robin Hood, which came out in 1922, was the best movie Dwan made with Douglas Fairbanks. He became known as a major director because of the movie.
Gloria Swanson was another actress who worked with the director for a long time. In 1925, he put her in the movie “Manhandled,” and the next year, he put her in “Stage Struck.” Gloria’s roles in both of these movies were praised as being among the best.
Then, in 1929, he worked with actor Douglas Fairbanks for the last time on the film “Iron Mask.” Douglas played the part of “D’Artagnan” in this movie, and it was a pretty big hit. At this point in time, this director was at the top of his game.
Allan’s career started to go downhill when talking movies came out. Even though he made a lot of movies, most of them were not very good.
In 1937, the out-of-the-box director made a comeback with the movie “Heidi,” in which Shirley Temple played a girl who had run away from home. He put her in the movie “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” the next year.
In 1938 and 1939, he worked on movies like “Suez” and “Frontier Marshal” for the famous “20th Century Fox” studio. ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘The Gorilla’ were also parodied that he directed.
“The Sands of Iwo Jima,” a movie with John Wayne that was a big hit in 1949, was directed by this man. The movie about the war had just the right amount of everything, including action and drama. This movie was the first time that John Wayne was nominated for an Academy Award.
He kept working through the 1950s, and the science fiction movie “The Most Dangerous Man Alive,” which came out in 1958, was the last movie he directed. After three years, the movie came out. People think that the director couldn’t find the money for another movie, which forced him to stop making movies.
It is thought that the director has made 400 movies over the course of his 42-year career. He worked and lived longer than most of his contemporaries and became a model for many directors working today.
Works of note
His movies with Douglas Fairbanks, “Robin Hood” and “Iron Mask,” did very well at the box office. The movie “Robin Hood” made him a big name in the movie business.
The 1949 war movie “The Sands of Iwo Jima” was also a big hit and was nominated for an Oscar. The movie is one of the most important things in the Republic Pictures Library.
Awards & Achievements
The famous director has a star on the “Hollywood Walk of Fame” at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard in California. This was done in 1960.
In 1976, the “Career Achievement Award” was given to this great movie director.
Personal History and Legacies
This director was married to the actress Pauline Bush, whom he often worked with in his movies. He got married again to Marie Shelton after she died.
His story was told in the book “Allan Dwan and the Rise and Fall of the Hollywood Studios” by Frederic Lombardi. The book was released in New York with a showing of Allan’s directing work.
He died in his Los Angeles, California, home in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. The funeral was held at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.
Estimated Net worth
Unknown.