Wikipedia

Phillips Smalley

Wendell Phillips Smalley (August 7, 1865 – May 2, 1939[1]) was an American silent film director and actor.

Phillips Smalley
Smalley in 1915
Born
Wendell Phillips Smalley

(1865-08-07)August 7, 1865
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedMay 2, 1939(1939-05-02) (aged 73)
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Occupation(s)Actor, film director
Years active1910–1939
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1904; div. 1922)​
Phyllis Ephlin
​
(m. 1925)​
RelativesWendell Phillips (grandfather)

Biography

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Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the grandson of Wendell Phillips; he was the son of George Washburn Smalley, a war correspondent, and his wife Phoebe Garnaut, adopted by Phillips.[2][3][4] He enrolled at Balliol College, Oxford in 1886.[5]

Smalley began his career in vaudeville and acted in more than 200 films between 1910 and his death in 1939. He began directing in 1911 and made more than 300 films by 1921.[citation needed]

Smalley was married to actress, writer, director, and producer Lois Weber from April 29, 1904, to 1922.[6] They met in 1904 when Weber was acting in a theater where Smalley was stage manager. In 1908 Smalley and Weber began working for the U.S. division of Gaumont Film Company, where Smalley was an actor, and later a director. He is sometimes listed as a co-director with Lois Weber, and the extent of his contribution to her work is unresolved.[citation needed]

After their divorce in 1922, he married Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin, and they remained together until his death.[1]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Obituary". Los Angeles Times. May 5, 1939. p. 19.
  2. ^ Mahar, Karen Ward (August 25, 2008). Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. JHU Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8018-9084-0.
  3. ^ Slide, Anthony (1996). Lois Weber: The Director who Lost Her Way in History. Greenwood Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-313-29945-2.
  4. ^ Wright, John D. (2013). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Civil War Era Biographies. Routledge. p. 545. ISBN 978-0-415-87803-6.
  5. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Smalley, Phillips" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  6. ^ Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health records. "Marriage Records, 1871–present." Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.
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