Motion Picture Director, Actor. He directed the legendary smash "The Sheik" (1921), a key film of the silent era. It made a superstar of Rudolph Valentino, had smitten female viewers swooning in their seats, and touched off an international craze for "Arab" fashion and interior design. Melford was born in Rochester, New York. He left his studies at McGill University in Montreal to become a stage actor, and began directing films for Kalem in 1911. In the 1920s he helmed several prestigious films for Paramount, including "The Sea Wolf" (1921), "Ebb Tide" (1922), "The Light That Failed" (1923), "The Flame of the Yukon" (1926), and "The Charlatan" (1929). But after sound came in he was demoted to making foreign-language versions of early talkies and Poverty Row quickies. A real curio among these is Melford's Spanish edition of "Dracula" (1931), which some critics consider stylistically superior to the Tod Browning-Bela Lugosi original. Also of note is the minor jungle epic "East of Borneo" (1931), which artist Joseph Cornell cut and reassembled into the famous avant-garde short "Rose Hobart" (1937). Melford returned to acting in 1939 and had good character parts in "My Little Chickadee" (1940), "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), "Hail the Conquering Hero" (1944), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945), "The Robe" (1953), and "The Ten Commandments" (1956). He died at the Motion Picture Country Home.
Motion Picture Director, Actor. He directed the legendary smash "The Sheik" (1921), a key film of the silent era. It made a superstar of Rudolph Valentino, had smitten female viewers swooning in their seats, and touched off an international craze for "Arab" fashion and interior design. Melford was born in Rochester, New York. He left his studies at McGill University in Montreal to become a stage actor, and began directing films for Kalem in 1911. In the 1920s he helmed several prestigious films for Paramount, including "The Sea Wolf" (1921), "Ebb Tide" (1922), "The Light That Failed" (1923), "The Flame of the Yukon" (1926), and "The Charlatan" (1929). But after sound came in he was demoted to making foreign-language versions of early talkies and Poverty Row quickies. A real curio among these is Melford's Spanish edition of "Dracula" (1931), which some critics consider stylistically superior to the Tod Browning-Bela Lugosi original. Also of note is the minor jungle epic "East of Borneo" (1931), which artist Joseph Cornell cut and reassembled into the famous avant-garde short "Rose Hobart" (1937). Melford returned to acting in 1939 and had good character parts in "My Little Chickadee" (1940), "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), "Hail the Conquering Hero" (1944), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945), "The Robe" (1953), and "The Ten Commandments" (1956). He died at the Motion Picture Country Home.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
Inscription
GEORGE H. MELFORD
BELOVED HUSBAND
1877 – 1961
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