Herbert Brenon


Herbert Brenon born Alexander Herbert Reginald St. John Brenon was an Irish film director, actor and screenwriter during the era of silent movies through the 1930s.

Biography

He was born at 25 Crosthwaite Park, in Kingstown and Beau Geste ; Sorrell and Son, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director at the 1st Academy Awards ; Laugh, Clown, Laugh, with Lon Chaney; and The Flying Squad, his final film.
Screenwriter/director Ed Bernds did not have fond memories of Brenon. "So many of the silent film directors were phonies. I didn't think highly of Herbert Brenon, for instance. He was the old, imperious type of director. Lordly, demanding. There was a scene in Lummox, where Winifred Westover was supposed to be betrayed by Ben Lyon, who has gotten her pregnant. He throws some money down and she takes the money and tears it up with her teeth. Well, Brenon demanded real money! And several takes. The poor propman was going around borrowing money from the crew. It was the Imperial syndrome of silent film directors."
Before his death, Brenon was working on his autobiography. When he worked with Mary Brian in Peter Pan, he asked her to paint her idea of what Never-Neverland looked like and the painting was to be included in the photos of the book. He died before it was completed. He died in Los Angeles and was interred in a private mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Partial filmography