An American film director, writer, producer, and editor, born in Clinton, Massachusetts. He studied at a high school in Knoxville, and then studied engineering at Tennessee State University, before showing his interest in the artistic field. He joined the Peerless Pictures Studios and became an assistant to the French-born director Maurice Tourneur. He got his first real opportunity in the film The Great Redeemer in 1920. He also directed many artistic works, including Butterfly (1924), Navy Blues (1929), and A Free Soul (1931). He was nominated five times for the Academy Award in the directing category, and once in the production category. He did not receive the award throughout his career, but he won the Best Foreign Film Award at the Venice International Film Festival in 1935 for the film Anna Karenina. He died in Santa Monica, California.