Home > Allan Dwan

Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, his family moved to the United States when he was eleven years of age. At university, he trained as an engineer and began working for a lighting company in Chicago, Illinois. However, he had a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry and when Essanay Studios offered him the opportunity to become a scriptwriter, he took the job. At that time, some of the East Coast movie makers began to spend winters in California where the climate allowed them to continue productions requiring warm weather. Soon, a number of movie companies worked there year-round and, in 1911, Dwan moved to Hollywood. There, he obtained work as a writer and actor and soon as a director and producer, the field for which he is most remembered.

Allan Dwan became a true innovator in the motion picture industry. After making a series of westerns and comedies, he directed fellow Canadian, Mary PickfordMary Pickford ( April 8, 1892 May 29, 1979) was a motion picture star, known as "America's Sweetheart" and "the girl with the curl. She became one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. Mary Pickford Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, in several very successful movies as well as her husband, Douglas FairbanksDouglas Fairbanks ( May 23, 1883 December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He became noted for his swashbuckling roles in such movies as The Mark of Zorro ( 1920), The Three Musketeers ( 1921), Robin Hood ( 1922), The, notably in the acclaimed 1922See also 1921 in film 1922 1923 in film 1920s in film years in film film Events November 26 Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor The Gulf Between was the first film to do so but it was not widely distributed Robin HoodRobin Hood is the archetypal English folk hero, an outlaw who, in modern versions of the legend, stole from the rich to give to the poor. This redistributionist form of philosophy-in-action anticipates the work of writers such as Proudhon and Karl Marx by.

In 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti-, Alan Dwan became president of the Motion Picture Directors Association. Following the introduction of the talkiesA sound film (or talkie is a motion picture with synchronized sound as opposed to a silent movie. Although not the first, the most famous of the early talkies was The Jazz Singer in 1927. In the early years after introduction of sound, sound films were ca, in 1937See also 1936 in film 1937 1937 films 1938 in film 1930s in film years in film film Events Top grossing films # Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs # Conquest # Damaged Lives # Parnell # La Grande illusion # Annapolis Salute # Pepe le Moko # Green Fields Acad he directed child-star Shirley TempleShirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California), later known as Shirley Temple Black is an American film actress and diplomat who is considered by many to be the most famous child actress in history. One of her first film roles was i in Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm the following year.

Over his long and successful career spanning over fifty years, he directed over 400 motion pictures, many of them highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office smash, The Sands of Iwo Jima . His last movie was in 1961.

Dwan is one of the directors that spanned the silent to sound era. Most of the silent movies he directed are lost due to poor preservation. Little historical writing has been devoted to Dwan, but some believe that he will be the last "discovered" great director from the Classic Hollywood Era .

He died in Los Angeles at the age of ninety-six, and is interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California.

Allan Dwan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.