Raymond Wells — Studio Directory (1916) 🇺🇸

Raymond Wells, Director, Universal

Raymond Wells, Director, Universal Film Mfg. Co., was born in Dodge, Kan., and educated in the public schools of that city and the State University.

He began his long and varied experience as an actor and stage director in 1895 with the College Stock Company of Chicago; following this he appeared in stock in Portland, Ore., Minneapolis, Minn., and Kansas City, Mo. The excellent training thus derived was of great service to him in his later work when he appeared in such productions as Ben Hur, The Squaw Man, The Road to Yesterday, The Third Degree, and Julius Caesar, under the management of Charles Frohman, Henry B. Harris and producers of like character.

Attracting the attention of these various managers by close application to business and a knowledge of the technique of stage direction, he soon advanced to the position of stage manager and as such was in complete charge of many Broadway successes. At the first inroad of the motion picture upon the legitimate drama Mr. Wells, with creditable foresight, joined the film ranks, becoming associated with D. W. Griffith. The habit of studying very closely any work in which he is engaged stood Wells in good stead and he rapidly rose from the ranks of film actors and appeared in many distinguished productions, such as The Sable Lorcha with Tully Marshall, The Flying Torpedo with John Emerson, and in the massive presentation of Macbeth with Sir Herbert Tree.

What was perhaps the most notable accomplishment of Raymond Wells’s career and also one of the most notable accomplishments in the history of the American stage was his masterly and wonderful direction of the great outdoor production of Julius Caesar in the Beechwood Natural Amphitheatre, Hollywood, Cal., for the benefit of the Actors’ Fund of America. The cast assembled needs only to be named that its import may be realized. William Farnum was Marc Antony; Frank Keenan, Cassius; Tyrone Power [Tyrone Power Sr.], Brutus; De Wolf Hopper, Casca; Douglas Fairbanks [Douglas Fairbanks Sr.], Octavius; Sarah Truax, Portia; Constance Crawley, Calpurnia, and Mae Murray, premier danseuse, in the spectacle scenes. In these latter scenes some five thousand people were used and the lighting effects were marvelous beyond description. Forty thousand were in attendance and the performance received world wide recognition as a real step in the forwarding of the drama.

Following his work in this production, Mr. Wells accepted an offer from the Universal Film Mfg. Co. to produce a series of pictures and is now so engaged. The first one produced under this contract, called The Caravan, has been accounted one of the most artistic films of recent times. He has also directed Ruth Stonehouse in The Saintly Sinner and Kincaid, Gambler, the latter a story from his own pen. Mr. Wells spends his spare time when he has any, which is very rare, in motoring and improving his golfing score. Address, Universal City, Cal.

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Collection: Motion Picture News, October 1916

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