Bryan Foy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bryan Foy (right) with his younger siblings as Seven Little Foys (1915)

Bryan Foy (born December 8, 1896 in Chicago , Illinois , † April 20, 1977 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film producer , director , screenwriter and actor .

life and career

Bryan Foy was born as the son of the well-known vaudeville actor Eddie Foy (1856-1928) and his wife Madeline (1869-1918). He was on stage alongside his father at an early age and, along with his siblings, gained national fame in the 1910s when he appeared with them on numerous stages in the United States under the name Seven Little Foys . In 1915, the siblings made the film A Favorite Fool , which was Bryan's first contact with the film business.

After serving in the First World War , he did not return to acting, but instead turned to the film business behind the camera. In the 1920s he was the director and producer of numerous short films , mainly for the Fox Film Corporation . In 1926 he switched to Warner Brothers , where he dealt extensively with the Vitaphone process. In 1927 he wrote the script for the Buster-Keaton comedy The Musterschüler . Foy found his place in film history as the director of the crime drama Lights of New York (1928) with Helene Costello , which is considered the first full-length sound film (earlier feature-length sound films such as The Jazzsinger , 1927, still had partially silent scenes). In 1929 he directed the German-language version film Die Königsloge with Alexander Moissi and Camilla Horn in the leading roles. Despite his pioneering work in talkies, he was denied great recognition as a director and by the early 1930s he was only making low-cost short films.

In the 1930s, Foy switched from directing to film production. He became the head of the B-movie department at Warner Brothers and was nicknamed "Keeper of the B's". Except for a stint at 20th Century Fox in the 1940s, he stayed with Warner Brothers for the rest of his career. Foy's best-known productions include the film noir steps in the night (1948) and the 3D horror film The Cabinet of Professor Bondi (1952). For his anti-communist film noir I Was a Communist for the FBI , the producer received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary in 1952 . In 1963 Foy retired from the film business after patrol boat PT 109 , one of his few A-productions.

With his wife, the actress Vivian Edwards (1896-1949), he was married from 1926 until her death. They had an adopted daughter. He died in Los Angeles in 1977 at the age of 80 after a heart attack.

Filmography (selection)

As an actor

  • 1915: A Favorite Fool
  • 1933: Elysia (Valley of the Nude)

As a director (selection)

  • 1923: Somebody Lied (short film)
  • 1927: The Night Court (short film)
  • 1928: Lights of New York
  • 1929: Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder (short film)
  • 1929: The royal box
  • 1930: The Happy Hottentots (short film)
  • 1931: Stout Hearts and Willing Hands (short film)
  • 1932: Mind Doesn't Matter (short film)

As screenwriter (selection)

  • 1924: William Tell (short film)
  • 1924: Robinson Crusoe (short film)
  • 1927: The Fortune Hunter
  • 1927: The model student (college)

As a producer (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. tcm.com: suzidoll: Bryan Foy and John Alton: To Unlikely Team . ( filmstruck.com [accessed October 27, 2017]).
  2. ^ Bryan Foy (1896-1977) - Find A Grave Memorial. Retrieved October 27, 2017 .
  3. Bryan Foy | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved October 27, 2017 .
  4. ^ Bryan Foy (1896-1977) - Find A Grave Memorial. Retrieved October 27, 2017 .
  5. Bryan Foy | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved October 27, 2017 .