Raoul Walsh

Walsh was educated at Seton Hall College. He began acting in 1909, first as a stage actor in New York City and later as a film actor. In 1913 he changed his name to Raoul Walsh. In 1914 he became an assistant to D. W. Griffith and made his first full-length feature film as an actor, 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 battle recreations. Walsh played Villa as a younger man.

Walsh played John Wilkes Booth in Griffith's epic The Birth of a Nation (1915) and also served as an assistant director. This movie was followed by the critically acclaimed Regeneration in 1915, the earliest feature gangster film, shot on location in Manhattan's 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 Laurence Stallings' What Price Glory? (1926), starring Victor McLaglen and Dolores del Río.

In

for the role Walsh was originally slated to play. Walsh would wear an eyepatch for the rest of his life.

In the early days of sound with

He directed several films afterwards, including three with Clark Gable: The Tall Men (1955), The King and Four Queens (1956) and Band of Angels (1957). Walsh retired in 1964. He died of a heart attack in 1980.^[7]

Outside interests

Raoul Walsh was a breeder and owner of Thoroughbred racehorses.^[8][9] For a time, his brother George Walsh trained his stable of horses.^[10] Their horse Sunset Trail competed in the 1937 Kentucky Derby won by War Admiral who went on to win the U.S. Triple Crown. Sunset Trail finished sixteenth in a field of twenty runners.^[11]

Some of Walsh's film-related material and personal papers are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives.^[12]

Selected filmography

Miscellaneous

• The Conqueror (writer, 1917)
• The Big Trail (story contributor, uncredited, 1930)
• Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
  (producer, uncredited, 1951)
• The Lawless Breed (producer, uncredited, 1953)
• Esther and the King (screenplay, 1960)
• The Men Who Made the Movies: Raoul Walsh (TV documentary)
• Himself (1973)

Notes

1. ^ Walsh replaced director Bretaigne Windust, who fell severely ill, on The Enforcer and shot over half the film, but refused to take screen credit.

References

1. ^ Billiter, Bill (January 3, 1981). "Famed Motion Picture Director Raoul Walsh Dies at 93". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
2. ISBN 0-7864-0983-5
   .
3. ISSN 2157-4189
   .
4. ^ Jack Hill on WHITE HEAT, retrieved October 29, 2022
5. PMID 30357500
   .
6. ISBN 978-1479328598
   .
7. ^ Peter B. Flint (January 3, 1981). "Raoul Walsh, 93, Dead; Early Director of Movies". The New York Times. p. 26.
8. ^ "Rockingham Park Notes". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. July 9, 1934. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
9. ^ "Raoul Walsh's New Trainer". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. April 22, 1939. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
10. ^ "Plans for Walsh Stable". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. April 21, 1937. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
11. ^ "Kentucky Derby History". Kentucky Derby Info. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
12. ^ "Cinema Archives". Wesleyan University. Retrieved August 21, 2019.

Further reading

• Moss. Marilyn Ann (2011). Raoul Walsh: The True Adventures of Hollywood's Legendary Director. University Press of Kentucky.^{[ISBN missing]}
• Smith, Renee D. (2013). The Films of Raoul Walsh: A Critical Approach ^{[ISBN missing]}

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Raoul Walsh.

• Raoul Walsh at
  IMDb
• Raoul Walsh at AllMovie
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Raoul Walsh at Virtual History
• kinotv