1878-1942
British born actor (and occasional director) George Cowl was born on this date in Blackpool, England. Cowl's film debut came in the 1914 war short Dan, which was made in the U.S. by the American All-Star Feature Corp. and released in August--so Cowl's immigration stateside must have come sometime earlier in the decade. We do not know much about Cowl, despite that he was an actor in films into the talking era. We do know that he had named appearances in a few films with quite famous directors, before turning to directing himself. These include: The Rack (1915) directed by Emile Chautard, The Closed Road (1916) directed by Maurice Tourneur, The Crimson Dove (1917) directed by Romaine Fielding and The Iron Ring (1917) directed by George Archainbaud. Cowl only had three known named directing credits--all in 1917; but he is also listed, along with Edmund Lawrence, as an uncredited director on William A. Brady's Beloved Adventuress in 1917. It is more like that the two men were serving as assistant directors to Brady, a credit designation that was rare during this time. Cowl's actual directing debut came later in the year when he co-directed the film that he is most closely associated with today (when he is known at all): Betsy Ross (September 1917). Produced and distributed by World Film, the other director credited here is the more recognizable Travers Vale; while Ross is played by Alice Brady (daughter of the above mentioned William A. Brady). The film survives and is available on disc. Cowl had just two solo outings as director, both with distribution by World. The first of these was The Corner Grocer a melodrama starring Madge Evans and Lew Fields; it represents the only film in which he also directed himself as a member of the cast. He next directed Kitty Gordon and Frank Beamish in Her Hour (November 1917). He is not listed as having any movie activity at all for 1918, before returning to acting in 1919, appearing in the Emile Chautard mystery The Mystery of the Yellow Room (October 1919) [Cowl made an uncredited appearance in the Harry Houdini film The Grim Game just before this.] And, he appeared in yet another Archainbaud film in 1920: The Shadow of Rosalie Byrnes with Elaine Hammerstein in the lead in a dual role playing twins. He would go on to appear in supporting roles in at two more Chautard films in the next two years. In 1923, he appeared in The Prisoner in the top male supporting role as "Lord Bob" opposite June Elvidge as "Lady Francis." He also took the supporting role in Fashionable Fakers, a 1923 comedy starring Johnnie Walker; next showing up in the sizable cast of the Frank Borzage directed Secrets (March 1924), a Norma Talmadge melodrama. While he has no film credits for 1925, he returned to act in two films in 1926 in more minor supporting roles (one of which was in another Borzage film: Marriage License? ). Having just one role in 1927, he finished the decade out with three film appearances in 1928, the last of which was the Civil War set Court-Martial, starring Betty Compson as Belle Starr (the film also featured sequences in the early technicolor process popularly known as "two-strip"). He did not appear in a film again until gaining a supporting role in the Myrna Loy pre-code 1930 romantic drama The Jazz Cinderella. While his last credited role came in Secrets of Hollywood in 1933. He is known for sure to have appeared in at least seven additional films in small, non-credited role between 1934 and 1937. His last film appearance came 5 years later as a butler in the film-noir The Glass Key starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, in 1942. The film was released several months after his death on the 4th of April at the age of 64. We know that he passed away in Los Angeles, but nothing else about his life or his burial/cremation is known at this time.
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