Robert Ellis
actor, director, writer
- Birth name:
- Robert Ellis Reel
- Born:
- 1892-06-27, Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Died:
- 1974-12-29, Santa Monica, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
Brooklyn welcomed Robert Ellis on 27 June 1892, and from that day forward he seemed hell-bent on keeping every reel of film in America busy. By 1915 he was already steering the serial mayhem of *The Ventures of Marguerite*, and four years later he chased cliff-hanging danger through *The Tiger’s Trail*. Speed still thrilled him two decades on: he slipped behind the camera for 1938’s *Speed to Burn*, proving that gasoline and drama ran through his veins in equal measure. Between calls of “Action!” and “Cut!” he collected wedding rings the way other people collect stamps—Vera Reynolds, May Allison, Irene Boyle, and Helen Logan each shared a chapter of his life. When the final curtain fell on 29 December 1974, the Pacific sunset in Santa Monica, California, became the last spotlight on a man who had spent fifty years racing, romancing, and reinventing himself in flickering black-and-white.
