W. S. Van Dyke
Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II ( born March 21, 1889 in San Diego, California, USA, † February 5, 1943 in Brentwood, California, USA) was an American film director.
Life
Van Dyke was born the son of a lawyer and a pianist in San Diego. After the death of his father, he worked with his mother in various vaudeville theaters and was six years old his first starring role. After various jobs in 1915 he came into the film business. He had his first job at the Essanay Studios, where he worked as a scriptwriter and assistant director, together with the then already famous directors Charles Brabin and DW Griffith. Later, he was involved as an assistant director at Griffiths Intolerance.
In 1917 he led for the first time Paramount Pictures Director himself, where he quickly earned a reputation as an efficient director with high organizational skills, which gave him the nickname " One Take Woody". This call was to the 1928 Irving Thalberg caused them to be granted by the Director of the South Seas drama White Shadow, after the original director Robert J. Flaherty had been fired because he had exceeded the time frame and budget. The studio often put him afterwards in costly, often troubled productions, which he brought with efficiency and on budget to an end. Among the best known films of the time were the adventure strip Trader Horn, which he shot on location in Africa, and the musical Cuban Love Song with Lawrence Tibbett and Lupe Velez, the distinguished himself in the action through the intelligent integration of the songs.
In 1932, he staged with Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan the Ape Man. His still -known film he directed in 1934, when he started The Thin Man, the two actors William Powell and Myrna Loy in crime comedy based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett. The film was a resounding success and Van Dyke was first nominated for an Oscar. He turned then with many top stars of the studio, so with Joan Crawford in never marry the first time, Rumor Has It and Love on the Run, Jeanette MacDonald, with whom he directed some of her best films, including Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie and San Francisco, and Norma Shearer. Van Dyke led the production of Marie- Antoinette, which gradually evolved into a financial mess, to a happy union end. After Norma Shearer had first opposed violently against his appeal, Van Dyke eventually led them to a renewed nomination for Best Actress.
1939 was studio boss Louis B. Mayer Van Dyke the thankless task of production of I Take This Women with Hedy Lamarr, in which already had alternated in the past 14 months, four directors to bring to an end. In 1942 he turned to the child star Margaret O'Brien his latest film Journey for Margaret, before the age of 53 died a few months after the premiere of a heart attack. From 1935 until his death he was married to Ruth Mannix, with whom he had three children.