1. Raoul Walsh was known for portraying John Wilkes Booth in the silent film The Birth of a Nation and for directing such films as the widescreen epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne in his first leading role, The Roaring Twenties starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat starring James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien.
Raoul Walsh's work has been noted as influences on directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jack Hill, and Martin Scorsese.
Raoul Walsh was buried at Assumption Cemetery Simi Valley, Ventura County, California.
Raoul Walsh began acting in 1909, first as a stage actor in New York City and later as a film actor.
Raoul Walsh played John Wilkes Booth in Griffith's epic The Birth of a Nation and served as an assistant director.
In Sadie Thompson, starring Gloria Swanson as a prostitute seeking a new life in Samoa, Raoul Walsh starred as Swanson's boyfriend in his first acting role since 1915; he directed the film.
Raoul Walsh was then hired to direct and star in In Old Arizona, a film about O Henry's character the Cisco Kid.
Raoul Walsh gave up the part and never acted again.
Warner Baxter won an Oscar for the role Raoul Walsh was originally slated to play.
Raoul Walsh would wear an eyepatch for the rest of his life.
The movie starred John Wayne, then unknown, whom Raoul Walsh discovered as prop man named Marion Morrison, and he was renamed after the Revolutionary War general Mad Anthony Wayne; Raoul Walsh happened to be reading a book about him at the time.
Raoul Walsh directed The Bowery, featuring Wallace Beery, George Raft, Fay Wray and Pert Kelton; the energetic movie recounts the story of Steve Brodie, supposedly the first man to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and live to brag about it.
Raoul Walsh directed several films afterwards, including three with Clark Gable: The Tall Men, The King and Four Queens and Band of Angels.
Raoul Walsh was a breeder and owner of Thoroughbred racehorses.
Some of Raoul Walsh's film-related material and personal papers are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives.