Alan Crosland
Alan Crosland ( born August 10, 1894 in New York City, New York, † July 16, 1936 in Hollywood, California ) was an American film director. In 1927, he was with The Jazz Singer, the director of the first Tonfilmes.
Life
The son of wealthy parents attended the renowned Dartmouth College. For a time he worked as a journalist, then moved the theater Crosland interested in the movie business. In 1917 he made his first film, and soon also with silent film stars such as Olive Thomas, Bebe Daniels, John Barrymore and Dolores Costello. With the successful Olive Thomas films The Flapper (1920 ) and Everybody's Sweetheart ( 1920) he became one of the most renowned directors. His career reached its peak with the Warner Bros. feature films Don Juan (1926) and The Bettelpoet (1927 ), both starring John Barrymore in the lead role. Don Juan was also the first major film with Vitaphone sound effects and so was entrusted to him in 1927 with The Jazz Singer to rotate the first commercial sound film with speech sequences. His films The Love of Betty Patterson (1928 ) and The Song of the Flame ( 1930) were not considered for Oscars, but after the end of the silent film era Croslands activities generally less been successful, because he only received orders for small, meaningless productions.
Crosland died at the age of 41 years following a car accident. He is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. His most recent film work The Case of the Black Cat was completed at that time still in the production phase and was directed by William C. McGann.
Crosland was married three times and divorced three times, all his wives were actresses: Juanita Fletcher (1917-1921), Elaine Hammerstein (1925-1930) and Natalie Moorhead ( 1930-1935 ). His son from his first marriage junior Alan Crosland (1918-2001) worked for several years as an editor in the film industry and then became a successful television director.