J. P. McGowan
Encyclopedia
John Paterson McGowan was a pioneering Hollywood 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 film 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:...
, occasionally too screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and stunt actor
Stunt actor
A Stunt actor or Stunt actress is a person who both plays an essential acting role and actively perform his or her own physical demanding stunts without a stunt double for scenes in a film or television, commonly in the action genre...
. J.P. McGowan, as he was usually known, remains the only Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n to have been made a life member of the Screen Directors Guild (now Directors Guild of America).
Born in the then-bustling railway centre, Terowie in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, McGowan grew up in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. He was a capable horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
rider and served in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
with Montmorency's Scouts as a special dispatch rider.
From South Africa, McGowan was recruited to the U.S. to take part in a Boer War exhibit at the 1904 World's Fair. He then began working in live theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and in 1910 joined Kalem Studios in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. That year McGowan made his first film appearance in A Lad from Old Ireland
A Lad from Old Ireland
The Lad from Old Ireland is a 1910 American made motion picture. It is the first ever production by an American movie studio to be filmed on location outside of the United States....
as part of the crew that traveled to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to do the first ever film shot on location outside of the United States. During his acting career, his horseback riding ability saw him do many of Kalem's riding stunts.
McGowan directed the first twenty-six episodes of Kalem's 1914 adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
series, The Hazards of Helen
The Hazards of Helen
The Hazards of Helen is an American adventure film serial of 119 twelve minute episodes released over a span of slightly more than two years by the Kalem Company between November 7, 1914 and February 24, 1917....
. While filming he began a relationship with Helen Holmes
Helen Holmes
Helen Holmes was an American silent film actress.-Early life:While there is no known official birthplace record, Helen Holmes stated in an interview that she was born in South Bend, Indiana, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She began working as a photographer's model but turned to acting,...
, the film's star, and the two married. They left Kalem to set up their own successful production company, Signal Films, but their collaboration ended when they divorced in 1925.
J.P. McGowan successfully made the transition from silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
to talkies. While never a major star, in a busy career that spanned four decades, he is credited with acting in 232 films, mostly strong roles like sheriff or villain, writing 26 screenplays, and directing 242 productions. In 1932 he directed a young John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
in the 12 episode serial, The Hurricane Express
The Hurricane Express
The Hurricane Express is a 12-chapter Mascot Pictures film serial that stars John Wayne as airplane pilot Larry Baker, who goes after a mystery villain named "The Wrecker," the man responsible for a train crash that killed his father.-Cast:...
. From 1938 to 1951, as Executive Secretary of the Screen Directors Guild, he battled to secure recognition for the director role within the studio systems of the U.S. film and emerging television industry.
J.P. McGowan died in 1952 in Hollywood and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
. His life story was told in the 2005 book titled J.P. McGowan: Biography of a Hollywood Pioneer by John J. McGowan (ISBN 0-7864-1994-6).
McGowan's career is celebrated biennially in the town of his birth with the Terowie Days of Rail and Screen. The adventurous, stunt-filled partnership with Helen Holmes has been celebrated in the film, 'Stunt Love', which was presented at the Adelaide Film Festival in February 2011 and at Museum of Modern Art, New York, in April 2011.
Though known, like many Australian Johns, on a personal basis as Jack, J.P. should not be confused with the younger Jack McGowan who was long a screenwriter with MGM. Many movie sales lists do make this confusion, but if the film is a light comedy or musical, that is NOT the heavyweight J.P.