George Archainbaud

George Archainbaud

Archainbaud in 1921
Born (1890-05-07)May 7, 1890
Paris, France
Died February 20, 1959(1959-02-20) (aged 68)
Beverly Hills, California, USA
Occupation Film and television director
Spouse(s) Katherine Johnson (1921-1959)

George Archainbaud (May 7, 1890 – February 20, 1959) was a French-born American film and television director.

Biography

In the beginning of his career he worked on stage as an actor and manager. He came to the United States in 1915, and started his film career as an assistant director to Emile Chautard at the World Film Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1917 he made his own directorial debut As Man Made Her. During the next three and a half decades he directed over one hundred films. After the beginning of the 1950s he moved to television.

While working at the RKO in the beginning of the 1930s, he showed some artistic and skillful eye with many of his films. The finest examples include Thirteen Women (1932) and The Lost Squadron (1932). Especially the latter is a memorable thriller about Hollywood stunt flyers, who risk their lives under the direction of monstrous Erich von Stroheim.

Although Archainbaud directed films of all genres, he is nowadays mainly linked with westerns. In fact, it was not until the last decade of his directorial career until he specialized in them. With the producer Harry Sherman he made several Hopalong Cassidy oaters. Later he was also one of the principal directors of Gene Autry's Flying A Productions, at which he made several episodes for such weekly television series as Buffalo Bill Jr., Annie Oakley and The Adventures of Champion (TV series).

At the time of his death in 1959, Archainbaud had taken a position as director of the new Rory Calhoun western series, The Texan, a highly fictionalized account of the gunfighter Bill Longley, who was hanged in 1874. Calhoun's Longley, however, is a kindly person who travels through the Old West with a willingness to help the downtrodden in struggles with the lawless element. The Texan, a Desilu program which aired for two seasons on CBS, had more than a dozen directors, including Erle C. Kenton and Edward Ludwig.[1]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ↑ Billy Hathorn, "Roy Bean, Temple Houston, Bill Longley, Ranald Mackenzie, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and the Texas Rangers: Depictions of West Texans in Series Television, 1955 to 1967", West Texas Historical Review, Vol. 89 (2013), p. 111
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