Lambert Harwood Hillyer (July 8, 1893 – July 5, 1969) was an American

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Biography

Lambert Harwood Hillyer was born July 8, 1893, in

Tyner, Indiana Tyner is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Polk Township, Marshall County, Indiana, Polk Township, Marshall County, Indiana, Marshall County, Indiana. Originally named Tyner City, it is named after Thomas Tyner. He died in 1880, a ...

. His mother was character actress

Lydia Knott Lydia Knott (October 1, 1866 – March 30, 1955) was an American actress of the silent film era. She appeared in more than 90 films between 1914 and 1937. Biography Knott was born in Tyner, Indiana, the daughter of Lambert and Clarissa Kn ...

. A graduate of Drake College, he worked as a newspaper reporter and an actor in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and stock theater. During World War I he began working in motion pictures and became a prolific director and screenwriter, working on many silent-era Westerns by

William S. Hart William Surrey Hart (December 6, 1864 – June 23, 1946) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered as a foremost Western star of the silent era who "imbued all of his characters with honor and integ ...

Buck Jones Buck Jones (born Charles Frederick Gebhart; December 12, 1891 – November 30, 1942) was an American actor, known for his work in many popular Western movies. In his early film appearances, he was credited as Charles Jones. Early life, milita ...

Tom Mix Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...

and others. Often associated with producer

Thomas H. Ince Thomas Harper Ince (November 16, 1880 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film - era filmmaker and media proprietor. Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films. He revolutionized the mo ...

, Hillyer expanded into romantic melodramas and crime films in the 1920s. In 1936 he directed two chillers for

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 ...

, the science-fiction film '' The Invisible Ray'' and the cult horror film ''

Dracula's Daughter ''Dracula's Daughter'' is a 1936 American vampire film, vampire horror film produced by Universal Pictures as a sequel to the 1931 film ''Dracula (1931 English-language film), Dracula''. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett F ...

''. He directed the first screen depiction of Batman, a 15-part serial produced in 1943 that was re-released as a theatrical feature in 1965. He directed many

B movies A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

in the 1930s and early 1940s, including the

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

that were his specialty. Hillyer finished his career directing low-budget dramas and Westerns for

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

. In the early days of television, Hillyer also directed episodes of the syndicated Western, ''

The Cisco Kid The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in '' Everybody's Magaz ...

''. Hillyer directed at least one episode of ''Highway Patrol'', which starred Broderick Crawford. Hillyer died July 5, 1969, in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

.Ancestry.com. ''California, Death Index, 1940–1997'' atabase online Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2000. Retrieved July 23, 2016.

Filmography

Director

Screenwriter

In addition to writing screenplays for many of the films he directed, as noted above, Hillyer wrote or contributed to the screenplays for these motion pictures.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillyer, Lambert 1893 births 1969 deaths American male screenwriters Film directors from Indiana Screenwriters from Indiana Writers from South Bend, Indiana 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters