61 Facts About James Whale

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood.

James Whale is best remembered for several horror films: Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, all considered classics.

James Whale was born into a large family in Dudley, Worcestershire now Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.

James Whale discovered his artistic talent early on and studied art.

James Whale was captured by the Germans and during his time as a prisoner of war he realised he was interested in drama.

James Whale's success directing the 1928 play Journey's End led to his move to the US, first to direct the play on Broadway and then to Hollywood, California, to direct films.

James Whale lived in Hollywood for the rest of his life, most of that time with his longtime romantic partner, producer David Lewis.

At the height of his career as a director, James Whale directed The Road Back, a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front.

Studio interference, possibly spurred by political pressure from Nazi Germany, led to the film's being altered from James Whale's vision, and it was a critical failure.

James Whale continued to direct for the stage and rediscovered his love for painting and travel.

James Whale's investments made him wealthy and he lived a comfortable retirement until suffering strokes in 1956 that robbed him of his vigor and left him in pain.

James Whale committed suicide on 29 May 1957 by drowning himself in his swimming pool.

James Whale was openly gay throughout his career, something that was very rare in the 1920s and 1930s.

James Whale was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, at the heart of the Black Country, the sixth of seven children of William, a blast furnaceman, and Sarah, a nurse.

James Whale attended Kates Hill Board School, followed by Bayliss Charity School and finally Dudley Blue Coat School.

James Whale's attendance stopped in his teenage years because the cost would have been prohibitive and his labor was needed to help support the family.

James Whale discovered he had some artistic ability and earned additional money lettering signs and price tags for his neighbors.

James Whale used his additional income to pay for evening classes at the Dudley School of Arts and Crafts.

James Whale was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Worcestershire Regiment in July 1916.

James Whale was taken prisoner of war in battle on the Western Front in Flanders in August 1917, and was held at Holzminden Officers' Camp, where he remained until the war's end, being repatriated to England in December 1918.

James Whale developed a talent for poker, and after the war he cashed in the chits and IOUs from his fellow prisoners that he had amassed in gambling to provide himself with finances for re-entry into civilian life.

James Whale sold two cartoons to the Bystander in 1919 but was unable to secure a permanent position.

In 1928 Whale was offered the opportunity to direct two private performances of R C Sherriff's then-unknown play Journey's End for the Incorporated Stage Society, a theatre society that mounted private Sunday performances of plays.

James Whale offered the part of Stanhope to the then barely known Laurence Olivier.

James Whale directed this version, which premiered at Henry Miller's Theatre on 22 March 1929.

James Whale traveled to Hollywood in 1929 and signed a contract with Paramount Pictures.

James Whale was assigned as "dialogue director" for a film called The Love Doctor.

James Whale completed work on the film in 15 days and his contract was allowed to expire.

James Whale was hired by independent film producer and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, who planned to turn the previously silent Hughes production Hell's Angels into a talkie.

James Whale chose Frankenstein, mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him, and he wanted to make something other than a war picture.

James Whale cast Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and Mae Clarke as his fiancee Elizabeth.

James Whale returned to horror with The Invisible Man.

Also in 1933 James Whale directed the romantic comedy By Candlelight which gained good reviews and was a modest box office hit.

James Whale had resisted making a sequel to Frankenstein as he feared being pigeonholed as a horror director.

James Whale gathered as many of those as he could who had been involved in one production or another of the musical, including Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Charles Winninger, Sammy White, conductor Victor Baravalle, orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett, and, as Magnolia, Irene Dunne, who believed that James Whale was the wrong director for the piece.

James Whale's career went into sharp decline following the release of his next film, The Road Back.

James Whale protested to PCA enforcer Joseph Breen, arguing that the film gave an "untrue and distorted picture of the German people".

James Whale's original cut of the film was given generally positive reviews, but some time between preview screenings and the film's general release, Rogers capitulated to the Germans, ordering that cuts be made and additional scenes be shot and inserted.

James Whale was furious, and the altered film was banned in Germany anyway.

James Whale only made one additional successful feature film, The Man in the Iron Mask, before retiring from the film industry in 1941.

James Whale was offered the occasional job, including the opportunity to direct Since You Went Away for David O Selznick, but turned them down.

Lewis bought him a supply of paint and canvasses and James Whale re-discovered his love of painting.

James Whale shot the film, called Personnel Placement in the Army, in February 1942.

James Whale returned to Broadway in 1944 to direct the psychological thriller Hand in Glove.

James Whale directed his final film in 1950, a short subject based on the William Saroyan one-act play Hello Out There.

Plans were made to take it to New York, but James Whale suggested taking the play to London first.

The 62-year-old James Whale was smitten with the younger man and hired him as his chauffeur.

James Whale returned to California in November 1952 and advised David Lewis that he planned to bring Foegel over early the following year.

Lewis bought a small house and dug a swimming pool, prompting James Whale to have his own pool dug, although he did not himself swim in it.

James Whale began throwing all-male swim parties and would watch the young men cavort in and around the pool.

James Whale returned in 1954 permanently, and Whale installed him as manager of a gas station that he owned.

James Whale suffered from mood swings and grew increasingly and frustratingly more dependent on others as his mental faculties were diminishing.

James Whale died by suicide by drowning himself in his Pacific Palisades swimming pool on 29 May 1957 at the age of 67.

James Whale left a suicide note, which Lewis withheld until shortly before his own death decades later.

James Whale's body was cremated per his request, and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

When his longtime partner David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's.

James Whale lived as an openly gay man throughout his career in the British theatre and in Hollywood, something that was virtually unheard of in that era.

James Whale was a particular admirer of the films of Paul Leni, combining as they did elements of gothic horror and comedy.

James Whale is credited with being the first director to use a 360-degree panning shot in a feature film, included in Frankenstein.

James Whale used a similar technique during the Ol' Man River sequence in Show Boat, in which the camera tracked around Paul Robeson as he sang the song.

Only two of James Whale's films received Oscar nominations: The Man in the Iron Mask, and Bride of Frankenstein.