Fred Niblo — Biographical Sketch (1927) 🇺🇸

Motion picture stars are not the only ones to claim interesting backgrounds.

Fred Niblo, Ben-Hur director, came to the screen after a long career on the stage, which included appearances in every English-speaking country in the world. He was born in York, Neb. His mother was a French woman, and his father, who was a captain in the Civil War, was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. His grandfather was killed on the battlefield of France, and his forefathers were in Napoleon’s Army of Occupation in Moscow.

A soldier of fortune in his youth, Mr. Niblo invaded the sacred precincts of India and China. He has appeared by command before royalty. He has talked with cannibals in the Solomon Islands, lived in Zulu villages, slept in the tent of an Arab chief in the Nubian desert, explored in the swamps of Uganda, photographed the African jungle, and risked a term in Siberia for taking the only moving pictures ever made within the walls of the sacred Kremlin in Moscow, with which he toured this country as a lecturer.

Mr. Niblo was financially interested with George M. Cohan in his first independent theatrical ventures. After this he went on the stage, playing in musical comedies, comedies and dramas. He has written and produced a number of successful plays, and has starred in Hit-The-Trail-Holliday, and The Fortune Hunters. He first entered motion pictures as a director in 1918 for Thomas Ince [Thomas H. Ince]. His first picture was “The Marriage Ring,” with Enid Bennett, his wife, and Jack Holt.

Among his most famous pictures are The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand,  The Three Musketeers, “The Famous Mrs. Fair,” “Mother O’Mine,” “The Red Lily,” The Temptress,  Ben-Hur and Camille. “The Enemy,” with Lillian Gish, has not been released as yet. Among the stars he has directed are: Norma Talmadge, Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish, Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy, Barbara La Marr, Enid Bennett, Antonio Moreno, Gilbert Roland, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Forbes, Greta Garbo, etc. He has been president of the Directors’ Association and vice-president of the M. P. Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Fred Niblo

• The Mark of Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks — United Artists)
• The Three Musketeers (Douglas Fairbanks — United Artists)
• Blood and Sand (Famous-Lasky Players)
• “The Red Lily” (Louis B. Mayer — Metro)
• Ben-Hur (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• The Temptress (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• Camille (Norma Talmadge — Joseph M. Schenck)
• “The Enemy” (Lillian Gish — M-G-M)

• “The Flower of Spain” (Vilma Bánky — Ronald Colman — Samuel Goldwyn)

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