George Marshall(1891-1975)

George Marshall was a versatile American director who came to Hollywood to visit his mother and "have a bit of fun". Expelled from Chicago University in 1912, he was an unsettled young man, drifting from job to job, variously employed as a mechanic, newspaper reporter and lumberjack with a logging outfit in Washington state. Trying his luck in the emerging film industry, he got his start at Universal and was put to work as an extra. His powerful, six-foot frame served him well for doing stunt work in westerns, earning him a dollar every time he fell off a horse.

He was first glimpsed on-screen in a bit as a laundry delivery man in Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's Le bal des domestiques (1916). The acting gig wasn't to his taste, though, and, within a year he moved on to writing and directing. The majority of his early assignments were two-reel westerns and adventure serials, starring the popular Ruth Roland. A jack-of-all-trades, he was later prone to remark that in those days he often needed to double as cameraman and editor, too, often cutting his film with a pair of scissors and splicing it with cement. In the 1920's, Marshall worked with cowboy star Tom Mix and then became a comedy specialist for Mack Sennett, turning out as many as 60 one- or two-reelers per year. At Fox, he served as supervising director on all of the studio's comedic output between 1925 and 1930.

At the beginning of the sound era Marshall joined Hal Roach and directed comedies with Thelma Todd (Strictly Unreliable (1932)) and two of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's best shorts: Laurel et Hardy bonnes d'enfant (1932) and Marchands de poisson (1932)). Always adept at visual comedy, Marshall directed (and also turned up to good effect in a cameo as a hard-boiled army cop in) Les sans-soucis (1932). Economic conditions forced a downsizing at Roach, and Marshall returned to Fox in 1934, staying there for four years, then worked at Universal (1939-40) and Paramount (1942-50, and 1952-54). One of his biggest critical and financial successes was the classic western Femme ou démon (1939), which re-invigorated the career of Marlene Dietrich and became Universal's top box-office hit for the year. He controlled the antics of W.C. Fields in Sans peur et sans reproche (1939); helped Betty Hutton on her way to stardom with the biopics La blonde incendiaire (1945) and Les exploits de Pearl White (1947); and directed Alan Ladd in the film noir classic Le Dahlia bleu (1946). There was also a fruitful association with Bob Hope, beginning with Le mystère du château maudit (1940).

Freelancing over the next two decades, Marshall turned out three superior vehicles for Glenn Ford: a western (La vallée de la poudre (1958)) and two comedies (Un mort récalcitrant (1959) and Le bataillon des lâches (1964)). He was one of three directors (the other two were John Ford and Henry Hathaway) assigned individual segments of the blockbuster La Conquête de l'Ouest (1962). Towards the end of his long career he helmed several episodes of the Daniel Boone (1964) and Here's Lucy (1968) TV series.

With at least 185 directing credits to his name (there may have been as many as 400, given his prolific output of shorts during the 1910's), George Marshall retired from making films in 1972 and died three years later at the age of 83. He has a star on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.