Walsh, Raoul

born March 11, 1887, New York, N.Y., U.S.

died Dec. 31, 1980, Simi Valley, near Los Angeles, Calif.

U.S. film director.

Walsh began acting for the stage in 1910 and on film in 1912, the same year that he began directing. He was an assistant to D.W. Griffith and appeared in The Birth of a Nation (1915). In his 50-year career, he directed over 200 films, usually characterized by their simplicity and quick action. His White Heat (1949) is a classic study of a pathological criminal, and The Naked and the Dead (1958) is an effective translation of Norman Mailer's novel into film. His other films include What Price Glory? (1926), The Roaring Twenties (1939), They Drive by Night (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), High Sierra (1941), and A Distant Trumpet (1964).

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▪ American director

born March 11, 1887, New York City

died Dec. 31, 1980, Simi Valley, near Los Angeles

      U.S. motion-picture director popular in the 1930s and '40s for his tough, masculine films.

      Walsh began acting for the stage in 1910 and on film in 1912, the same year that he began directing. He played John Wilkes Booth in D.W. Griffith's greatest success, The Birth of a Nation (1915), and went on to direct about 200 motion pictures, usually characterized by their simplicity and quick action.

      In 1949 he completed the film White Heat, a classic study of a pathological criminal. Other of Walsh's more complex pictures include High Sierra (1941), a sympathetic portrayal of an aging criminal whose life ends in tragedy, and The Naked and the Dead (1958), an effective translation of Norman Mailer's novel into film. Walsh's other films include: The Thief of Bagdad (1924), What Price Glory? (1926), The Roaring Twenties (1939), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), The Tall Men (1955), and A Distant Trumpet (1964).

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