Robert G. Vignola
Robert G. Vignola | |
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Born |
Rocco Giuseppe Vignola August 5, 1882 Trivigno, Basilicata, Italy |
Died |
October 25, 1953 71) Hollywood, California, USA | (aged
Occupation | Actor, Screenwriter and Film director |
Years active | 1906–1937 |
Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 5, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-born American actor, screenwriter and film director in American cinema. One of the silent screen's most prolific directors, he made a handful of sound films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era.
Biography
Born at Trivigno, in the province of Potenza,[1] Vignola left Italy with his family at the age of 3 and was raised in upstate New York. He made his acting debut at 19 in the theatrical show "Romeo and Juliet", performing with Eleanor Robson Belmont and Kyrle Bellew.
He began his film career as an actor in 1906 with the short film The Black Hand, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and produced by Biograph Company. A year later, he became part of Kalem Studios, for which he made numerous movies. As an actor, one of Vignola's most notable film roles was as Judas Iscariot in From the Manger to the Cross (1912), directed by Sidney Olcott, one of the most successful films of the period.
As a director, he directed 87 films, some of which have been lost. Some examples are The Vampire (1913), sometimes cited as the first "vamp" movie,[2] and Seventeen (1916), where Rudolph Valentino did an uncredited cameo.
Other films include the big-budget epic When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), starring Marion Davies; Déclassée (1925), with the uncredited appearance of the then unknown Clark Gable; Broken Dreams (1933), which received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival, and The Scarlet Letter (1934), the last film of Colleen Moore.
He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as Audrey (1916) and Double Crossed (1917), both lost films.
Vignola died in Hollywood, California in 1953 and was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New York.[3]
Partial filmography
![](../I/m/Hearst_Vignola_%26_Brisbane_1920.jpg)
Actor
- The Black Hand (1906)
- A Runaway Sleighbelle (1907)
- The Fight for Freedom (1908)
- The Navajo's Bride (1910)
- A Lad from Old Ireland (1910)
- Rory O'More (1911)
- The Colleen Bawn (1911)
- A Prisoner of the Harem (1912)
- An Arabian Tragedy (1912)
- From the Manger to the Cross (1912)
- Missionaries in Darkest Africa (1912)
- The O'Neill (1912)
- The Fighting Dervishes of the Desert (1912)
- The Shaughraun (1912)
- A Sawmill Hazard (1913)
- A Desperate Chance (1913)
- The Lady Peggy's Escape (1913)
- The Octoroon (1913)
- The Scimitar of the Prophet (1913)
- The Wives of Jamestown (1913)
Director
![](../I/m/Under_Cover_1916.jpg)
- The Vampire (1913)
- Audrey (1916)
- Seventeen (1916)
- The Evil Thereof (1916)
- The Moment Before (1916)
- Under Cover (1916)
- Great Expectations (1917)
- Her Better Self (1917)
- The Fortunes of Fifi (1917)
- The Love That Lives (1917)
- Double Crossed (1917)
- The Girl Who Came Back (1918)
- Women's Weapons (1918)
- His Official Fiancée (1919)
- More Deadly Than The Male (1919)
- The Thirteenth Commandment (1920)
- The World and His Wife (1920)
- Enchantment (1921)
- Beauty's Worth (1922)
- When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922)
- Adam and Eva (1924)
- Yolanda (1924)
- Married Flirts (1924)
- The Way of a Girl (1925)
- Déclassée (1925)
- Cabaret (1927)
- Broken Dreams (1933)
- The Scarlet Letter (1934)
- The Girl from Scotland Yard (1937)
References
- ↑ Alfred Krautz, Hille Krautz, Joris Krautz, Encyclopedia of film directors in the United States of America and Europe, Volume 2, Saur, 1997, p.221
- ↑ John T. Soister, American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929, McFarland, 2012, p.41
- ↑ Robert G. Vignola; allmovie.com
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert G. Vignola. |
- Robert G. Vignola at the Internet Movie Database
- (French) Robert G. Vignola website dedicated to Sidney Olcott