From Wikipedia
John Paterson McGowan (February 24, 1880 – March 26, 1952)
was a pioneering Hollywood actor and director and occasionally a screenwriter
and producer. J. P. McGowan, as he was usually known, remains the only
Australian to have been made a life member of the Screen Directors Guild (now
Directors Guild of America).
Born in the then-bustling railway centre of Terowie in South
Australia, McGowan grew up in Adelaide (Islington) and Sydney. He was a capable
horseman and served in the Second Boer War with Montmorency's Scouts as a special
dispatch rider.
McGowan directed and often acted in the first 33 episodes of
Kalem's 1914 adventure film series, The Hazards of Helen, which eventually ran
to 54 episodes, some still with McGowan's participation. While filming he began
a relationship with Helen Holmes, the film's star, and the two married. They
left Kalem to set up their own production company, Signal Films, which
successfully made a series of railroad melodramas but lost out when their
distributor (Mutual) failed. The collaboration ended when they divorced in
1925. There was an adopted daughter, Kaye.
McGowan successfully made the transition from silent film 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 in the 12-episode rail vs airplane serial The
Hurricane Express for the independent Mascot Pictures. From 1938 to 1951, as
Executive Secretary of the Screen Directors Guild, he fought to secure
recognition for the director within the studio systems of the 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.
