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Roy William Neill

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Roy William Neill
Roy William Neill c. 1926
Born(1887-09-04)4 September 1887
Ireland
Died14 December 1946(1946-12-14) (aged 59)
London, England, United Kingdom
OccupationFilm director
Years active1917–1946

Roy William Neill (born Roland de Gostrie, 4 September 1887 – 14 December 1946) was an Irish-born American film director best known for producing and directing almost all of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Pictures.[1]

Biography

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1919 film crew (from left): Thomas Walsh (assistant director), Ned Van Buen (camera operator), Edward James (assistant director), Edward Wynard (camera operator), Neill (director, seated)

With his father as the captain, Roy William Neill was born on a ship off the coast of Ireland. Neill lived in the United States for most of his career and was an American citizen. He began directing silent films in 1917 and went on to helm 111 films, 55 of them silent. He was also credited in some works as R. William Neill, Roy W. Neill, and Roy Neill.

Neill was known for his striking visual style: meticulously lit scenes, careful compositions, and layered shadows that would become the tone of film noir in the late 1940s (his last film, Black Angel (1946), is considered a film noir). Neill's imaginative direction and compositions were noticed by then-low-budget Columbia Pictures, which hired him in 1928.

Roy William Neill became one of Columbia's dependable directors. His best-known Columbia features are Whirlpool, a Jack Holt vehicle that introduced one of Columbia's major stars, Jean Arthur; and The Black Room (1935), a costume thriller starring Boris Karloff in a dual role. Neill also directed additional scenes, without screen credit, for Frank Capra's 1932 feature American Madness.

In 1935 Neill left Columbia for a five-year stay in London, where better opportunities existed for American directors. British film producer Edward Black hired Neill to direct The Lady Vanishes. However, due to delays in production, Black engaged Alfred Hitchcock to direct instead.

In 1942 Neill became a producer-director for Universal Pictures. After the studio's first Sherlock Holmes mystery, produced by Howard Benedict and directed by John Rawlins, the studio assigned Roy William Neill to take over the series as both producer and director. Most of Neill's Universal films are atmospheric thrillers, although he did direct one musical, Rhythm of the Islands (1943). His best-known Universal feature, apart from the Sherlock Holmes pictures, is Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).

In 1942, when Universal's major production Flesh and Fantasy was recut after its preview from four sequences to three, the deleted sequence starring Gloria Jean, Alan Curtis, and Frank Craven was shelved. In August 1944, the studio assigned Roy William Neill to expand the half-hour sequence into a full-length feature called The Fugitive. Neill produced the new material but did not direct; the project was rushed through production in less than two weeks while Gloria Jean was available, so Neill had no time to prepare any original direction. The feature version was ultimately released in December 1944 as Destiny.[2]

After Destiny, Neill supervised the Sherlock Holmes series almost exclusively; he remained with Universal through 1946. He died in London, England, from a heart attack.

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Ted Strauss (8 October 1943). "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) At the Palace". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Scott MacGillivray and Jan MacGillivray, Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven, pp. 163-164, iUniverse, 2005. ISBN 978-0-595-37080-1
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