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Reginald Barker is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter and Producer American born on 2 april 1886 at Winnipeg (Canada)

Reginald Barker

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Birth name Reginald C. Barker
Nationality USA
Birth 2 april 1886 at Winnipeg (Canada)
Death 23 february 1945 (at 58 years) at Pasadena (USA)

Reginald C. Barker (April 2, 1886 – February 23, 1945) was a pioneer film director.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada his family moved to Scotland when he was an infant and then to the United States. Living in California, Barker wrote, produced, and acted in his first play at the age of sixteen following which he acted and handled stage manager duties with a traveling stock company. At age nineteen, he went to New York City where he worked as a stage manager for Henry Miller. Barker made his Broadway acting debut in 1910 in the Shubert brothers production of "Mary Magdalene" written by Maurice Maeterlinck.

Fascinated by the fledgling film business, Barker soon joined the Bison Motion Pictures division of the New York Motion Picture Company. At the company's studio/ranch in California, he worked under film producer and screenwriter Thomas H. Ince. Acting was not Barker's forte and he trained as an assistant director until 1912 when he directed his first film, a twenty minute western titled "On the Warpath" starring Art Acord. Barker went on to direct more than eighty films, including the acclaimed 1915 American Civil War drama The Coward. That same year he directed The Italian but because Thomas H. Ince was notorious for credit-grabbing, Barker originally went uncredited on this film. "The Italian" has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The following year, with the United States still not involved in World War I, Barker co-directed the famous anti-war feature, Civilization.

During his career, Reginald Barker directed early stars such as Geraldine Farrar, William S. Hart, Sessue Hayakawa, Gladys Brockwell, Hoot Gibson, Willard Mack, and Myrna Loy. In his first talkie, "The Toilers" (1928) he directed Douglas Fairbanks Jr.. Barker made his last film in 1935. Titled "The Healer," it starred Ralph Bellamy, Karen Morley and Mickey Rooney.

Reginald Barker retired to Pasadena, California where he and his wife operated a gift shop until his death from a heart attack in 1945. He is interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Biography

Sa famille quitte le Canada lorsqu'il est nourrisson et s'installe en Écosse puis vient se fixer aux États-Unis en Californie. Très jeune il écrit des pièces de théâtre. À l'âge de dix-neuf ans, il gagne New York et fait ses débuts en 1910 dans Marie Magdeleine de Maurice Maeterlinck.

Le jeune cinéma le fascine et il entre dans la société dans laquelle Thomas Harper Ince est très influent. Ce dernier fait signer aux réalisateurs qu'il supervise des contrats où son nom apparaîtra en tête du générique. Il est ainsi difficile de savoir quels sont les films qu'il a réalisés personnellement. Barker est cité au générique, comme scénariste ou coréalisateur de films qui ont été de grands succès à l'époque: La série des Rio Jim (1914), The City of Darkness (La cité des ténèbres, 1915, The Italian (L'Italien ou le Gondolier de Venise, 1915), Hell Bound of Alaska (Terrible châtiment, 1915), Carmen of the Klondyke (Carmen du KLondyke, 1917). Le film le plus marquant est Civilisation, produit en 1916 en collaboration avec Thomas H. Ince sur un scénario de C. Gardner Sullivan.

La critique a admis qu'il était le meilleur auteur des productions de Thomas H.Ince, un de ceux qui firent du western un grand art.

Il a continué à réaliser des films dans lesquels ont tourné de grandes vedettes : Sessue Hayakawa, Myrna Loy. Dans son premier film parlant, The Toilers en 1928, il dirige Douglas Fairbanks Jr.. En 1935 il tournera son dernier film The Healer avec Mickey Rooney.

Il se retire à Pasadena en Californie où il meurt d'une crise cardiaque en 1945.