Henry King (January 24, 1886 – June 29, 1982) was an American actor and film director. Widely considered one of the finest and most successful filmmakers of his era, King was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director and directed seven films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres and first started to take small film roles in 1912. Between 1913 and 1925, he appeared as an actor in approximately sixty films. He directed for the first time in 1915 and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the 1920s and '30s. He was twice nominated for the Best Director Oscar. In 1944, he was awarded the first Golden Globe Award for Best Director for his film The Song of Bernadette. He worked most often with Tyrone Power and Gregory Peck and for 20th Century Fox.
Henry King was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards excellence of cinematic achievements every year, and was the last surviving founder. He directed more than 100 films in his career. In 1955, King was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by the George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
King was born on his family's farm near Christianburg, Virginia at Parkdale Collegiate Institute. When he was young they moved to Lafayette. King started studying engineering but he had become interested in theatre at school and decided to become an actor. He joined a stock company in Roanoke, the Empire Stock Company, and began to tour the country doing plays.King later joined the Osmond Star Company, the Commonwealth Company, and the Jolly American Tramp Show. He also began directing theatre.
King began appearing in films in 1912, initially for the Lubin Manufacturing Company on the West Coast on $35 a week. He was with them for three months. King began writing screenplays and directing the occasional pick up shot for Lubin.
King accepted an offer to work for the Balboa Amusement Producing Company (later the Balboa Feature Film Company) in Long Beach as an actor $75 a week. While there he also wrote and direct. He sold an original story The Brand of Man. King's directing of a fight sequence for another film impressed Balboa so they gave him the chance to direct it, as his debut.
King directed the first episode of a series Who Plays?; he did not direct the rest but appeared in it as an actor. He said he was paid $75 a week as an actor and was offered an additional $25 a week to direct. He directed Should a Wife Forgive? (1916) with Lillian Lorraine and his was followed by When Might Is Right (1916), The Oath of Hate (1916), Pay Dirt (1916), and Faith's Reward (1916). King recalled:
The Balboa Company made pictures to be sold by the foot... [they] would shoot a great quantity of footage with some semblance of story in it and then tie it together with subtitles. They had no money; they would sell the negative at a dollar a foot and come back with a hundred thousand dollars, pay off their debts and start all over again...Every time they came back from New York they'd have a new girl, who would be my leading lady. I got a little tired of being presented with a new leading lady for every picture.
King discovered Baby Marie Osborne at the studio lunchroom and helped construct a vehicle for her, Little Mary Sunshine (1916). This made her a star. Other films King directed with Baby Marie (most of which were written by Dan Whitcomb) included Shadows and Sunshine (1916) with Baby Marie, Joy and the Dragon (1916), Twin Kiddies (1917), Told at Twilight (1917), Vengeance of the Dead (1917), and Sunshine and Gold (1917). He also starred and directed The Climber (1917) and The Locked Heart (1918).
King moved over to the American Film company who had offered him $350 a week. His first film for the company was a war movie Souls in Pawn (1917), written by Jules Furthman.
King followed it with The Bride's Silence (1917), Southern Pride (1917), A Game of Wits (1917), The Mate of the Sally Ann (1917). King directed some films with Mary Miles Minter: Powers That Prey (1918), Social Briars (1918), and Beauty and the Rogue (1918).
He made a series of films starring William Russell written by Jules Furthman: Hearts or Diamonds? (1918), Up Romance Road (1918), Hobbs in a Hurry (1918), All the World to Nothing (1918), When a Man Rides Alone (1919), Where the West Begins (1919), Brass Buttons (1919), Some Liar (1919), A Sporting Chance (1919), This Hero Stuff (1919), and Six Feet Four (1919).
King directed 23 1/2 Hours' Leave (1919) for Thomas Ince starring Douglas MacLean. After this King left for the Robertson-Cole Company. He did some films with HB Warner: A Fugitive from Matrimony (1919), Haunting Shadows (1919), The White Dove (1920), Uncharted Channels (1920), One Hour Before Dawn (1920), Dice of Destiny (1920), and When We Were 21 (1921). He starred in and directed Help Wanted - Male (1920) with Blanche Sweet - this was the last film King ever acted in.
King directed Pauline Frederick in The Mistress of Shenstone (1921), Salvage (1921), and The Sting of the Lash (1921). King joined his own company, Inspiration Pictures with Charlie Duell.
King had a huge critical and commercial success with Tol'able David (1921), financed by First National. It starred Richard Barthemless who reunited with King in The Seventh Day (1922), Sonny (1922), The Bond Boy (1922), and Fury (1923). T
King made The White Sister (1923) with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman. It was shot in Italy and was very successful, launching Colman as a movie star. He, Gish and King were reunited with Romola (1923).
He made some films with Alice Terry for Paramount, Sackcloth and Scarlet (1925) and Any Woman (1925).
Working for Sam Goldwyn, King had a huge success with Stella Dallas (1925) with Coleman, Partners Again (1926), and some films with Colman and Vilma Bánky: The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) and The Magic Flame (1927). He did The Woman Disputed (1927) for Norman Schenck and She Goes to War (1929) for Inspiration. These were part-sound movies.