Harry Beaumont

Born in Abilene, KS, in 1888, Harry Beaumont started his show-business career early--he quit school to become an actor in a traveling stock company, and eventually made his way to the New York stage.

In 1912 he began working as a film actor for Edison studios--which was headquartered across the river in New Jersey--in everything from two-reel shorts to serials, and also began writing screenplays.

He began directing in 1915, stayed with Edison for a year and then went over to Essanay Studios. He soon made the rounds of other studios as a director, and got a reputation as an efficient craftsman who could bring in films on time and within budget, which guaranteed him work.

His most productive period was in the 1920s, when he worked in the rarefied atmosphere of MGM--the "Tiffany" of studios--directing such major productions as Main Street (1923) and Beau Brummel (1924), and MGM entrusted him with the careers of such major stars as Joan Crawford and John Barrymore.

Director, chiefly at MGM (from 1928-34 and from 1944-48), as well as Fox and Warner Brothers. Did his best work in the 1920s, after starting in the business as an actor with Edison back in 1911. His career declined to second features after the advent of sound. His best films are considered to be Our Dancing Daughters (1928) and the Oscar-winning The Broadway Melody (1929).

The studio awarded him the honor of making its first sound musical, The Broadway Melody (1929), which won an Oscar for Best Picture.

Unfortunately, that picture was pretty much the pinnacle of his career; he continued directing, mainly at MGM, into the 1940s, but none of his subsequent films rose much above the "B" level.