Raoul Walsh

Raoul A. Walsh March 11, 1887 December 31, 1980 was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences AMPAS and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He was known for portraying John Wilkes Booth in the silent classic The Birth of a Nation 1915 and for directing such films as The Big Trail 1930 starring John Wayne, High Sierra 1941 starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat 1949 with James Cagney and Edmond OBrien. His last directorial effort came in 1964.

Walsh began as a stage actor in New York City, quickly progressing into film acting. He was educated at Seton Hall College and began acting in 1909. In 1914 he became an assistant to D.W. Griffith and made his first fulllength feature film, The Life of General Villa, shot on location in Mexico with Pancho Villa playing the lead and with actual ongoing battles filmed in progress as well as recreations events dramatized in the 2003 film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, with Kyle Chandler playing Walsh. Walsh played John Wilkes Booth in Griffiths epic The Birth of a Nation 1915, and also served as an assistant director. This was followed by the critically acclaimed Regeneration in 1915, possibly the earliest feature gangster film, shot on location in Manhattans Bowery district. Walsh served as an officer in the United States Army during World War I. He later directed The Thief of Bagdad 1924 starring Douglas Fairbanks and Anna May Wong and What Price Glory? 1926 starring Victor McLaglen and Dolores del Ro.In Sadie Thompson 1928, starring Gloria Swanson as a prostitute seeking a new life in Samoa, Walsh starred as Swansons boyfriend in his first acting role since 1915 he also directed the film. He was then hired to direct and star in In Old Arizona, a film about O. Henrys character the Cisco Kid. While on location for that film Walsh suffered a car accident in which he lost his right eye when a jackrabbit jumped through a windshield as he was driving through the desert. He gave up the part but not the directing job and never acted again Warner Baxter won an Oscar for the role Walsh was originally slated to play. Walsh would wear an eyepatch for the rest of his life. ........

Source: Wikipedia