Christy Cabanne

{{short description|American film director, screenwriter and actor}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Christy Cabanne

| image = William Christy Cabanne c. 1920 (extracted).jpg

| caption = Cabanne {{circa}} 1917

| birth_name = William Christy Cabanne

| birth_date = {{birth date|1888|04|16}}

| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri

| death_date = {{death date and age|1950|10|15|1888|04|16}}

| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

| restingplace =

| years_active = 1911–1948

| spouse = Vivien M. Lyle Montrose
Millicent Fisher

}}

File:The Adopted Brother - Christy Cabanne, D.W. Griffith - 1913, Biograph - EYE FLM24373 - OB 685502 - 720 x 404.ogv and Christy Cabanne for Biograph is a western about revenge. Collection EYE Film Institute Netherlands.]]

William Christy Cabanne (April 16, 1888 – October 15, 1950) was an American film director, screenwriter, and silent film actor.

Biography

Born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri, Cabanne (pronounced CAB-a-nay) was educated at the Culver Military Academy and finished his education at the Annapolis Naval Academy. After serving in the U. S. Navy, he started his career on stage in 1908, as an actor and director. He entered the motion picture field in 1910, directing Douglas Fairbanks, and becoming an assistant to pioneer director D. W. Griffith. He appeared on-screen in dozens of short films from 1911 to 1915. He became one of the more prolific directors of his time. Actress Miriam Cooper credited him with discovering her as an extra in 1912.

Cabanne established his own studio,The International Motion Picture Almanac (1946-47 edition), Terry Ramsaye, ed., Quigley Publications, 1946, p. 38. but gave up independent production to accept freelance jobs. For the next three decades he worked for many studios, including Goldwyn, MGM, FBO, Columbia, RKO, Universal, and Monogram. Cabanne directed child actress Shirley Temple in The Red-Haired Alibi (1932), her first credited role in a feature film."[https://web.archive.org/web/20140418092302/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/107506/The-Red-Haired-Alibi/overview The Red-Haired Alibi (1932)]". nytimes.com; retrieved April 16, 2014.

Cabanne earned a reputation for efficiency, capable of making feature films very quickly, often on rugged locations. Like fellow silent-era directors William Beaudine, Elmer Clifton, Harry Fraser, Lambert Hillyer, and Noel M. Smith, Cabanne was resourceful, and he worked for both major and minor studios through the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1940s, Cabanne was usually given low-budget action fare at Universal Pictures, and like Noel Smith he was often assigned to direct the last film in a studio series, finishing the studio's commitment quickly and cheaply. Cabanne ended his career making lower-budget westerns for Monogram Pictures.

Personal life

Christy Cabanne married Vivien M. Lyle Montrose in December 1912, in New York City. They had children, including Virginia Montrose Cabanne, Julia Gooden Cabanne, and Vivien. Cabanne had an affair with actress Millicent Fisher, who had appeared in several of his films (like A Regular Fellow, 1919). After Fisher's child was born, Vivien divorced Cabanne in March 1921. Cabanne then married Fisher.