Lorimer Johnston
actor, director, writer
- Birth name:
- Lorimer George Johnston
- Born:
- 1858-11-02, Maysville, Kentucky, USA
- Died:
- 1941-02-20, Hollywood, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
Born beneath the quiet Ohio River skies of Maysville, Kentucky, on 2 November 1858, Lorimer Johnston grew into a restless storyteller who chased the spotlight from stage to celluloid. Between the first flickers of American cinema and the golden glare of late-30s Hollywood, he morphed from actor to director, guiding 1914’s lavish pageant *The Envoy Extraordinary* and later steering the vine-swinging serial *Tarzan the Mighty* in 1928. Even when he surrendered center stage, his fingerprints lingered—most famously as part of the ensemble that brought 1939’s *Son of Frankenstein* to life. Off-camera, he shared his life with Caroline Frances Cooke, the woman who anchored his peripatetic world. Johnston’s own final curtain fell in Hollywood, California, on 20 February 1941, closing a career that spanned the birth of movies and their glittering heyday.
