Crane Wilbur
Encyclopedia
Crane Wilbur was an American
writer
, actor
and director
for stage, radio and screen. He was born in Athens, New York
. He died in Toluca Lake, California.
in the iconoclastic serial, The Perils of Pauline
. He brought to the first motion pictures merry eyes, a great, thick crop of wavy, black hair, and an athlete’s interest in swimming and horseback riding. Twelve years of stage experience prepared him before he ventured into the then new art of silent motion pictures. He was one of the first to explore the techniques required to communicate through the wordless shadows of the movies.
He was born Irwin Wilbur on November 17, 1886, in Athens, New York
. His father was a shipbuilder who died by his own hand while his son was a young man. Wilbur was a nephew of the actor Tyrone Power, Sr.
, thereby making him a cousin of Tyrone Power
.
In an article in the October 1915 issue of Motion Picture Magazine, Wilbur recalled, “My life hasn’t been a path of roses, nor always the straight and narrow road. It has been mostly uphill, rocky climbing, with many a slip and stumble, a few falls and several scars to tell the tale.” He added, “I have become what I am and have gained what I have by hard work. My preparatory school was the Academy of Experience, and I was finished in the College of Hard Knocks! I come of a theatrical family—was born at a rehearsal on a one-night stand; so, you see, I had to be an actor—I couldn’t help it.”
His first appearance in a movie was in 1910 in The Girl From Arizona. Years later, he remembered the experience: “When my first picture was finished I haunted the picture theaters, trying to see it, and when I finally did see it, oh, what a disappointment! It isn’t always pleasant to see yourself as others see you. But it was a great lesson, that first picture. I did many things in that first one that I did not do in the second. It has always been most pleasant work to me, out in the open most of the time, playing manly, vigorous roles, living a hundred different lives before the camera.”
In seventeen films made between 1910 and 1913, Wilbur established himself as a realistic performer who brought youth, good looks, and strength to his characterizations.
In April 1910, the American Pathé
studio formed and began producing films in a remodeled cash register factory at Bound Brook, New Jersey
. Paul Panzer was one of its first players. Pearl White
, a performer from vaudeville who had some movie experience with the Powers Picture Play Company, joined the fledgling studio. Wilbur identified with these players and became a member of their stock company. When the company planned to make a serial, The Perils of Pauline, in 1914, Wilbur wanted the lead male role that would pair him with Pearl White. He tested for and won the coveted role of Harry in the proposed serial.
In 1916, Wilbur scored a personal hit with a five-reel Mutual Masterpiece film, Vengeance is Mine, a thrilling story about the abolishment of capital punishment.
Vitagraph then hired him for his next assignment, The Heart of Maryland (1921), and on completion of the film, Crane broke from film work altogether. For several years, he dropped out of Hollywood, and returned to the stage, his first love. He wrote a modernization of The Bat, a play by Mary Roberts Rinehart
and Avery Hopwood
. There just was no work for him as an actor in films, so he took to the road. In 1924, Crane was touring in his own play, The Monster, a mystery story that made The Bat look like a bedtime story. He was notably for his 1926 success in New York on Broadway in The Bride of the Lamb with Alice Brady
, and later in 1930 in On the Spot with Anna May Wong
.
Wilbur returned to Hollywood in 1929 to resume his acting, writing, and directing career with many fictional and documentary films. In 1934, He appeared as an actor in three films: Name the Woman, High School Girl, and Tomorrow’s Children, and also directed the last two. As an actor, he played his last on-screen part in Jungle Queen (1945).
His work as a writer and director continued for the next twenty years. Outstanding successes, many of which are still shown today, include the screenplay for the horror film, House of Wax
(1953). In 1959, Allied Artists made a contemporary film of The Bat
, starring Vincent Price
and Agnes Moorehead
and directed by Wilbur. Crane’s modernization of the play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood had been an enormous success for many years, grossing upwards of $9,000,000. The story of eerie happenings in a creepy mansion rented for the summer by a writer of mystery novels had been perennially exciting for audiences, and kept him comfortably funded with royalties for years. Other films followed, including Solomon and Sheba
(1959) and Mysterious Island (1961).
Crane suffered a stroke, and then died on October 18, 1973, in Toluca Lake, California.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
for stage, radio and screen. He was born in Athens, New York
Athens, New York
Athens, New York can refer to:* Athens , New York* Athens , New York...
. He died in Toluca Lake, California.
Biography
Crane Wilbur was a prolific writer and director of at least sixty-seven motion pictures from the silent era into the sound era, but it was as an actor that he found lasting recognition, particularly playing opposite Pearl WhitePearl White
Pearl Fay White was an American film actress, the so-called "Stunt Queen" of silent films, most notably in The Perils of Pauline.-Early life:...
in the iconoclastic serial, The Perils of Pauline
The Perils of Pauline (1914 serial)
The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring Pearl White as the title character. Pauline has often been cited as a famous example of a damsel in distress, although some analyses hold that her character was more resourceful and less helpless than the...
. He brought to the first motion pictures merry eyes, a great, thick crop of wavy, black hair, and an athlete’s interest in swimming and horseback riding. Twelve years of stage experience prepared him before he ventured into the then new art of silent motion pictures. He was one of the first to explore the techniques required to communicate through the wordless shadows of the movies.
He was born Irwin Wilbur on November 17, 1886, in Athens, New York
Athens, New York
Athens, New York can refer to:* Athens , New York* Athens , New York...
. His father was a shipbuilder who died by his own hand while his son was a young man. Wilbur was a nephew of the actor Tyrone Power, Sr.
Tyrone Power, Sr.
Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power was an English-born American stage and screen actor, who acted under the name Tyrone Power.-Early life:Power was born in London in 1869, the son of Harold Littledale Power and Ethel Lavenu...
, thereby making him a cousin of Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
.
In an article in the October 1915 issue of Motion Picture Magazine, Wilbur recalled, “My life hasn’t been a path of roses, nor always the straight and narrow road. It has been mostly uphill, rocky climbing, with many a slip and stumble, a few falls and several scars to tell the tale.” He added, “I have become what I am and have gained what I have by hard work. My preparatory school was the Academy of Experience, and I was finished in the College of Hard Knocks! I come of a theatrical family—was born at a rehearsal on a one-night stand; so, you see, I had to be an actor—I couldn’t help it.”
His first appearance in a movie was in 1910 in The Girl From Arizona. Years later, he remembered the experience: “When my first picture was finished I haunted the picture theaters, trying to see it, and when I finally did see it, oh, what a disappointment! It isn’t always pleasant to see yourself as others see you. But it was a great lesson, that first picture. I did many things in that first one that I did not do in the second. It has always been most pleasant work to me, out in the open most of the time, playing manly, vigorous roles, living a hundred different lives before the camera.”
In seventeen films made between 1910 and 1913, Wilbur established himself as a realistic performer who brought youth, good looks, and strength to his characterizations.
In April 1910, the American Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
studio formed and began producing films in a remodeled cash register factory at Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. At the United States 2010 Census, the population was 10,402.Bound Brook was originally incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1869, within portions of Bridgewater Township...
. Paul Panzer was one of its first players. Pearl White
Pearl White
Pearl Fay White was an American film actress, the so-called "Stunt Queen" of silent films, most notably in The Perils of Pauline.-Early life:...
, a performer from vaudeville who had some movie experience with the Powers Picture Play Company, joined the fledgling studio. Wilbur identified with these players and became a member of their stock company. When the company planned to make a serial, The Perils of Pauline, in 1914, Wilbur wanted the lead male role that would pair him with Pearl White. He tested for and won the coveted role of Harry in the proposed serial.
In 1916, Wilbur scored a personal hit with a five-reel Mutual Masterpiece film, Vengeance is Mine, a thrilling story about the abolishment of capital punishment.
Vitagraph then hired him for his next assignment, The Heart of Maryland (1921), and on completion of the film, Crane broke from film work altogether. For several years, he dropped out of Hollywood, and returned to the stage, his first love. He wrote a modernization of The Bat, a play by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing...
and Avery Hopwood
Avery Hopwood
James Avery Hopwood , was the most successful playwright of the Jazz Age, having four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920.-Biography:...
. There just was no work for him as an actor in films, so he took to the road. In 1924, Crane was touring in his own play, The Monster, a mystery story that made The Bat look like a bedtime story. He was notably for his 1926 success in New York on Broadway in The Bride of the Lamb with Alice Brady
Alice Brady
Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939...
, and later in 1930 in On the Spot with Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
.
Wilbur returned to Hollywood in 1929 to resume his acting, writing, and directing career with many fictional and documentary films. In 1934, He appeared as an actor in three films: Name the Woman, High School Girl, and Tomorrow’s Children, and also directed the last two. As an actor, he played his last on-screen part in Jungle Queen (1945).
His work as a writer and director continued for the next twenty years. Outstanding successes, many of which are still shown today, include the screenplay for the horror film, House of Wax
House of Wax
House of Wax may refer to:*a wax museum*House of Wax , a 1953 3D horror film starring Vincent Price*House of Wax , a 2005 horror film starring Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray- See also :...
(1953). In 1959, Allied Artists made a contemporary film of The Bat
The Bat (1959 film)
The Bat is a mystery film directed by Crane Wilbur, and starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. Its tagline was "When it flies, someone dies!" The film was based on the 1920 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was previously filmed as The Bat and as The Bat...
, starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
and Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
and directed by Wilbur. Crane’s modernization of the play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood had been an enormous success for many years, grossing upwards of $9,000,000. The story of eerie happenings in a creepy mansion rented for the summer by a writer of mystery novels had been perennially exciting for audiences, and kept him comfortably funded with royalties for years. Other films followed, including Solomon and Sheba
Solomon and Sheba
Solomon and Sheba is a 1959 Biblical epic film made by Edward Small Productions and distributed by United Artists. The film stars Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders and Marisa Pavan, with David Farrar, Harry Andrews, Jack Gwillim, Laurence Naismith, William Devlin, Jean Anderson and...
(1959) and Mysterious Island (1961).
Crane suffered a stroke, and then died on October 18, 1973, in Toluca Lake, California.
Career
- House of WaxHouse of Wax (1953 film)House of Wax is a 1953 American horror film starring Vincent Price. It is a remake of Warners' Mystery of the Wax Museum without the comic relief featured in the earlier film, and was directed by André de Toth...
(screenwriter) - Lord Byron of BroadwayLord Byron of BroadwayLord Byron of Broadway , also known as What Price Melody?, is an American musical drama film, directed by Harry Beaumont and William Nigh...
(screenwriter) - I Was a Communist for the FBII Was a Communist for the FBII Was a Communist for the FBI is the name of a series of stories written by Matt Cvetic that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The stories were later turned into a best-selling book, an American espionage thriller radio series and motion picture in the early 1950s.The story follows Cvetic, who...
(radioplay writer) - The BatThe Bat (1959 film)The Bat is a mystery film directed by Crane Wilbur, and starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. Its tagline was "When it flies, someone dies!" The film was based on the 1920 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was previously filmed as The Bat and as The Bat...
(screenwriter, director) - The Amazing Mr. XThe Amazing Mr. XThe Amazing Mr. X, also known as The Spiritualist is a film noir directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton. Like Nightmare Alley , this film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket...
(screenwriter) - The MonsterThe Monster (1925 film)The Monster is a 1925 silent comedy horror directed by Roland West, based on the play by Crane Wilbur. It stars Johnny Arthur and Lon Chaney, and is remembered as an antecedental Old Dark House movie, as well as a precedent to many subgenre of horror films. The film has been shown on TCM network...
(playwright) - Mysterious IslandMysterious Island (1961 film)Mysterious Island is a 1961 film released by Morningside Productions. Based very loosely upon the novel The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, the film was produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen. Directed by Cy Endfield, it was released through Columbia Pictures...
(screenwriter) - Solomon and Sheba (writer)
- Hell's KitchenHell's Kitchen (1939 film)Hell's Kitchen is a 1939 Warner Bros. film starring Ronald Reagan and The Dead End Kids.-Plot:Buck Caesar is a paroled convict who makes a contribution to a reform school on the advice of his nephew, Jim Donahue , a lawyer...
(screenwriter) - Swingtime in the MoviesSwingtime in the MoviesSwingtime in the Movies is a 1938 short comedy film directed by Crane Wilbur. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1939 for Best Live Action Short Film, Two-Reel.-Cast:* Fritz Feld as Mr...
(director, writer) - Inside the Walls of Folsom PrisonInside the Walls of Folsom PrisonInside the Walls of Folsom Prison is a 1951 drama film starring Steve Cochran and David Brian. Set in Folsom State Prison in California, the film was seen both in the United States and Europe....
(director, writer) - Crime WaveCrime Wave (1954 film)Crime Wave is a 1954 film noir, directed by André De Toth. It was adapted from a short story which originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post - Criminal Mark by John and Ward Hawkins.-Plot:...
(screenwriter) - He Walked by NightHe Walked by NightHe Walked by Night is a black-and-white police procedural film noir, crediting Alfred L. Werker as director. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former Glendale police department employee and...
(writer, screenwriter) - Crime SchoolCrime SchoolCrime School is a 1938 Warner Bros. film directed by Lewis Seiler and starring the Dead End Kids and Humphrey Bogart.-Plot:A junkman is attacked by the Dead End Kids Crime School is a 1938 Warner Bros. film directed by Lewis Seiler and starring the Dead End Kids and Humphrey Bogart.-Plot:A junkman...
(screenwriter) - The Miracle of Our Lady of FatimaThe Miracle of Our Lady of FatimaThe Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is a feature film made in 1952. It was promoted as a fact-based treatment of the events surrounding the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917....
(screenwriter) - Canon CityCanon City (film)Canon City is an American film noir written and directed by Crane Wilbur. The drama features Scott Brady, Jeff Corey, Whit Bissell and others.-Plot:...
(director)
