Oscar C. Apfel (January 17 1878 – March 21 1938) was an American film actor,
directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and
producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
. He appeared in 167 films between 1913 and 1939, and also directed 94 films between 1911 and 1927.
Born in
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Apfel first directed for the Edison Company (Thomas A. Edison, Inc.) in 1911-12, where he made the innovative short film
The Passer-By (1912). In 1913, he became one of two main directors for the Jesse L.
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Oscar C. Apfel (January 17 1878 – March 21 1938) was an American film actor,
directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and
producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
. He appeared in 167 films between 1913 and 1939, and also directed 94 films between 1911 and 1927.
Biography
Born in
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Apfel first directed for the Edison Company (Thomas A. Edison, Inc.) in 1911-12, where he made the innovative short film
The Passer-By (1912). In 1913, he became one of two main directors for the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, the other being
Cecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was a legendary American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies.-Early life:...
. Apfel's directorial collaboration with DeMille was a crucial element in the development of DeMille's filmmaking technique. Apfel is often creditied as being one of the first men (along with DeMille) to bring Hollywood, then known as Hollywoodland, to the world stage. Legend has it that the two filmmakers were scouting for a location to shoot 'The Squaw Man' (1914) in Flagstaff, Arizona. However the conspicuously snow-capped mountains contradicted the picture's sweltering western setting. So they climbed aboard a train and headed west. Eventually they found themselves in a sleepy district of Los Angeles named Hollywoodland. The all year-round sunshine and cheap land made it an ideal place to shoot films.
In late 1914, Apfel left the Lasky Company and directed for various companies into the 1920s, gradually returning to acting.
On March 21, 1938, Apfel died in Hollywood, California from a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
.
Selected filmography
- The Squaw Man (1914)
- Brewster's Millions
Brewster's Millions is a 1914 comedy film directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille. It's an adaptation of the novel written by George Barr McCutcheon....
(1914)
- The Master Mind
The Master Mind is a 1914 American black & white silent crime/drama film directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille.The plot revolves around a defense attorney who, unable to obtain the acquittal of an innocent young man, concocts a complicated and diabolical scheme to revenge himself upon the...
(1914)
- The Only Son
The Only Son is a 1914 drama film directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille.-Cast:* Jim Blackwell - Thomas Brainerd, Sr. * A. MacMillan - Henry Thompson* Thomas W. Ross - Thomas Brainerd, Jr.* Jane Darwell - Mrs. Brainerd...
(1914)
- The Man on the Box
The Man on the Box is a 1914 comedy/drama film directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille.-Cast:* Horace B. Carpenter - Russian ambassador* Jane Darwell - Mrs. Chadwick* William Elmer - Troop commander* Max Figman - Lt. Bob Warburton...
(1914)
- The Call of the North
The Call of the North is a 1914 adventure-drama film directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille.-Cast:* Robert Edeson - Ned & Graehme Stewart* Theodore Roberts - Galen Albert* Winifred Kingston - Virginia* Horace B...
(1914)
- The Ghost Breaker
The Ghost Breaker is a 1914 adventure film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel.-Cast:* H. B. Warner - Warren Jarvis* Rita Stanwood - Princess Maria Theresa* Theodore Roberts - Prince of Aragon* Betty Johnson - Carmen...
(1914)
- After Five
After Five is a 1915 comedy film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel.-Cast:* Edward Abeles - Ted Ewing* Sessue Hayakawa - Oki, the Valet* Betty Schade - Nora Hildreth* Jane Darwell - Mrs...
(1915)
- Ravished Armenia
Ravished Armenia is the title of both a book written in 1918 by Arshaluys Mardiganian about her experiences in the Armenian Genocide and the Hollywood film based on it that was filmed in 1919....
(1919)
- Bulldog Drummond (1922)
- The Lion's Mouse
The Lion's Mouse is a 1923 British-Dutch silent crime film directed by Oscar Apfel.-Cast:* Wyndham Standing - Dick Sands* Mary Odette - Mouse* Rex Davis - Justin O'Reilly* Marguerite Marsh - Olga Beverley* Carl Tobi - Stephen...
(1923)
- Helping Grandma
Helping Grandma is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 103rd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
(1931)
- Five Star Final
Five Star Final is a 1931 American crime film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was written by Robert Lord and Byron Morgan from the play by Louis Weitzenkorn, and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The movie stars Edward G. Robinson, Oscar Apfel, Aline MacMahon, H. B...
(1931)
- Impatient Maiden
Impatient Maiden is a 1932 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale, and starring by Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke. The screenplay was written by Richard Schayer and Winifred Dunn, based on novel "The Impatient Virgin" by Donald Henderson Clarke.-Cast:*Lew Ayres as Dr...
(1932)
- Business and Pleasure
Business and Pleasure is a 1932 comedy film directed by David Butler, starring Will Rogers and featuring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Will Rogers - Earl Tinker* Jetta Goudal - Madame Momora* Joel McCrea - Lawrence Ogle* Dorothy Peterson - Mrs. Tinker...
(1932)
- The Old Fashioned Way (1934)
- Man on the Flying Trapeze
Man on the Flying Trapeze is a 1935 comedy film starring W. C. Fields as a henpecked husband. As with his other roles of this nature, Fields is put-upon throughout the film, but triumphs in the end.-Plot:...
(1935)
- Romance in Manhattan
Romance in Manhattan is an American comedy/romance film directed by Stephen Roberts, starring Francis Lederer and Ginger Rogers, and released by RKO Radio Pictures.-Plot:...
(1935)
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