Bruce Mitchell — Biographical Sketch (1927) 🇺🇸

Bruce Mitchell, one of the foremost of the Universal directors, seems to have had a varied career before finally alighting in the midst of the Hollywood film industry. There are many things he might have done, but he is reluctant to express them. Just now he is interested in making good pictures and it is conceded he is having a fair amount of success.

Mitchell does not talk much of how he broke into the picture game. As a matter of fact, he had no such inclination when he was a youngster, nor did his parents lay out such a career for him. As a matter of fact, they got him an appointment to the Annapolis Naval Academy from his home town, Freeport, Illinois, and he got a good part of his education there.

Whether Mitchell had a distaste for the navy is not known, but the fact remains that he next bobbed up as a full-fledged civil engineer and he spent some little time in that profession. It’s quite a hurdle from civil engineer to the theatrical profession, but Mitchell made it and landed with the Denver Stock Company, where for a full year he saw service in the variety of roles that go with the weekly change of bills. He got a lot of good experience in Denver and by it he has profited handsomely as a director.

It was in 1912 that Mitchell launched on his screen career and he chose the acting end of the profession. He recalls his first picture as one in which he played the heavy with Bob Leonard [Robert Z. Leonard], but the title has escaped him. From Universal, he went with the American Film Company and with Thomas H. Ince, and is now back again with Universal.

In the course of his long career Mitchell has made a number of highly successful photoplays, but he considers his best “Love’s Whirlpool.” Close to that he regards as his best “Three Miles Up” and “The Air Patrol.” Others of his successes have been too numerous to recount.

Mitchell is an enthusiastic Mason and a member of the 233 Club. He spends much of his spare time when away from the studio at fishing and hunting.

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Bruce Mitchell — Director Universal Pictures Corp.

• Sky High Saunders
• Three Miles Up
• The Air Patrol
• The Phantom Flyer
• Won in the Clouds

• The Sky Skidder
• The Cloud Buster
• The Flyin’ Fool
• and 3 more flying pictures

Collection: Motion Picture News, October 1927 (Booking Guide and Studio Directory)