John Cromwell was born as Elwood
Dager to a wealthy Scottish-English family in 1886. After starting his career traveling with a
small theatre, he moved to New York and made a real name on Broadway. At this point in his career, he was a
renowned actor rather than director. It
wasn’t until years later that he moved to Hollywood to be a dialogue director
on the speaking films that were new at the time. Eventually, Cromwell, as he was going by now,
took an acting roll, and after a good job, was offered a position working on
the directing crew.
In his
early days of directing, Cromwell’s job was primarily geared towards coaching
dialogue.
He spent the next few years working
for Paramount, then other studios like RKO, United Artists, and 20
th
Century Fox.
Eventually he finds himself working with
Columbia Pictures making Dead Reckoning.
Renowned actor Humphrey Bogart even chooses him as his director, due to
some ties together back on Broadway.
Cromwell
was soon tangled in accusations by HUAC, labeling him a communist.
Cromwell finished out his career at RKO where
he lost some control of his films due to the communist claims.
Eventually Cromwell retired from film and
returned to working with theater before his death in 1979 at the age of 92
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