Joseph W. Smiley
actor, director
- Born:
- 1870-06-18, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Died:
- 1945-12-02, New York City, New York, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director
Biography
Boston whistled its coldest winter note on 18 June 1870, the day Joseph W. Smiley first opened his eyes on its cobblestone streets; by the time vaudeville houses flickered into nickelodeons he had already traded Beantown boards for flickering celluloid. Between 1915 and 1919 he haunted cameras like a playful ghost—animating the stitched-together cadaver of Life Without Soul, unlocking the ramshackle doors of Seven Keys to Baldpate, and racing The Moral Deadline to its last-reel precipice—while quietly calling the shots from the director’s chair. Off-set he answered to one steady leading lady, actress Lila Leslie, his lifelong co-star in a private production that lasted until the final curtain fell in New York City on 2 December 1945.
