Elmer Clifton (March 14, 1890 – October 15, 1949) was an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

, director and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

from the early silent days. A collaborator of D.W. Griffith, he appeared in ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...

'' (1915) and '' Intolerance'' (1916) before giving up acting in 1917 to concentrate on work behind the camera, with Griffith and

Joseph Henabery Joseph Henabery (January 15, 1888 – February 18, 1976) of Omaha, Nebraska, was a film actor, screenplay writer, and director in the United States. He is best known for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in D.W. Griffith's controversial 1915 sile ...

as his mentors. His first feature-length solo effort as a director was ''The Flame of Youth'' with

Jack Mulhall John Joseph Francis Mulhall (October 7, 1887 – June 1, 1979) was an American film actor beginning in the silent film era who successfully transitioned to sound films, appearing in over 430 films in a career spanning 50 years. Early years Mu ...

. Clifton honed his talents during the late 1910s, directing vehicles for Mulhall and Herbert Rawlinson at

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

and then for

Dorothy Gish Dorothy Elizabeth Gish (March 11, 1898June 4, 1968) was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great s ...

for

Famous Players-Lasky Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and ...

. Two of his projects with Gish, '' Nobody Home'' and '' Nugget Nell'', featured performances from pre-stardom

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

. Most of this early output has been lost. He was the first filmmaker to discover the talents of

Clara Bow Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to " talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...

, whom he cast in '' Down to the Sea in Ships'', released on March 4, 1923. The independently produced film was well reviewed for its visual authenticity. During the 1920s, Clifton directed films for several different studios. During the filming of '' The Warrens of Virginia'' (

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hold ...

) for

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...

, lead actress

Martha Mansfield Martha Mansfield (born Martha Ehrlich; July 14, 1899 – November 30, 1923) was an American actress in silent films and vaudeville stage plays. Early life She was born in New York City to Maurice and Harriett Gibson Ehrlich. She had a younger sis ...

suffered a fatal accident from burns when her costume caught fire. Clifton directed ''The Wreck of the Hesperus'' for Cecil B. deMille's production company, and filmed on location in the Grand Canyon for ''The Bride of the Colorado''. He also directed some Technicolor short films, including ''Manchu Love'' with an all-Asian cast. In the sound era, Clifton wrote and directed many

poverty row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...

Westerns and "exploitation" classics, among them the anti-marijuana polemic ''

Assassin of Youth ''Assassin of Youth'' is a 1937 exploitation film directed by Elmer Clifton. It is a pre-WWII film about the supposed ill effects of cannabis. The film is often considered a clone of the much more famous '' Reefer Madness'' (sharing cast member ...

'' (1937). He also directed the vice films '' Gambling with Souls'' (1936), ''

Slaves in Bondage ''Slaves in Bondage'' is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by Elmer Clifton and starring Lona Andre, Donald Reed (actor), Donald Reed, and Wheeler Oakman. Plot summary The film tells the tale of how naive country girls are lured to the ...

'' (1937) and '' City of Missing Girls'' (1941), all of which portrayed addiction and white slavery to some degree. His last film '' Not Wanted'' (1949), was finished by producer Ida Lupino after Clifton suffered a heart attack three days into filming and was unable to work anymore. He died in 1949 of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

shortly after the film's release.

Early life

Elmer Clifton Forsyth was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Cecil Forsyth, an English composer and musicologist, and Margaret Nicolle.

Personal life

Clifton married actress Helen Kiely on November 29, 1926. The couple had three children: Actress Dorinda Clifton, a daughter named Patricia, and a son named Michael.

Selected filmography

Partial filmography

Actor

References

External links

* * 1890 births 1949 deaths American film directors American male film actors American male silent film actors Film serial crew 20th-century American male actors Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) {{US-film-director-1890s-stub