Phillips Smalley
actor, director, producer
- Birth name:
- Phillips Wendell Smalley
- Born:
- 1865-08-07, Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Died:
- 1939-05-02, Hollywood, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, producer
Biography
Brooklyn, 7 August 1865: Phillips Smalley enters the world, and within three decades he has stepped from the footlights to the flicker of early film. Behind the camera he shapes stories that still echo—*The Merchant of Venice* in 1914, the frontier fable *Captain Courtesy* the next year, and the explosive baby-cradle thriller of 1917. Between takes he shares life and art with two formidable wives, Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin and the pioneering Lois Weber. His final scene plays out on 2 May 1939 in Hollywood, California, closing a career that helped move cinema from novelty to narrative.
