Biography

April 17, 1882 · Liverpool, England, UK

November 3, 1957 · Santa Monica, California, USA (heart attack)

Charles Joseph Brabin

In the very early 1920s, he married the notorious screen vamp Theda Bara who was, in reality, quite the opposite of her public image. It was regarded as one of Hollywood's most successful director-star marriages. It ended in the mid-1950s when she succumbed to cancer. He passed away less than three years later.

Prolific English-born director of silent films, in America from the early 1900s. Began with the Edison company in New Jersey as an actor in 1908. He worked as a director of short films from 1911-15, graduating to features. Highly regarded in the 1920s, though fired from the set of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), which was being filmed in Italy, and replaced by Fred Niblo after budgetary excesses and the deaths of several Italian extras during filming. Under contract with MGM, 1929-34. Possibly his best sound picture was The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), but a close second would have to be the gritty, violent The Beast of the City (1932), the kind of tough, gun-blasting gangster picture one would expect from Warners, not the genteel MGM. Fired again while directing Rasputin and the Empress (1932) after clashing with the fiery Barrymores. Retired two years later.