Lewis Seiler Biography

In his early twenties, Lewis Seiler trekked from the East Coast to the West to try his luck in the movies. Seiler worked as gag man and assistant director before spending several years helming 2-reel comedies. Graduating to features in the 1920s, Seiler was most closely associated with the westerns of Tom Mix. In both the silent and talkie eras, Seiler was a slightly better than competent journeyman director, moving from comedy to drama to adventure efficiently but without any stylistic "signature." He often worked as a troubleshooter, bailing out directors who were having trouble getting through difficult projects; for example, he helped the great expatriate German director E. A. Dupont survive the Dead End Kids in Hell's Kitchen. Seiler's best films include the wartime moneyspinner Guadalcanal Diary (1943) and the Grover Cleveland Alexander biopic The Winning Team (1952), the latter project a textbook example of seamlessly matching stock footage with new material. After closing out his theatrical-feature career in 1958, Lewis Seiler turned to episodic television, which kept him busy until the early 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi