James Cruze Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a Kinema Junpo Award for Best Entertainment Film in 1925 for "The Covered Wagon․"
• Was interred in the Abbey of the Psalms in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
• According to some reports, he paid his way through drama school by working as a fisherman
• His first known acting job started in 1910 at Lubin Manufacturing Company
• A celebrated director of the silent film era, he is best known for "The Covered Wagon," which was shot on location in Utah and Nevada and employed a cast of thousands
• Much of his work as an actor was produced at the Thanhouser Company, which he joined in 1912
• His film "The Covered Wagon" was the second to pay at the newly opened Egyptian Theatre
• One man was killed and four were injured in a dynamite explosion during the filming of his film "Old Ironsides․"
• His biography was printed in "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945," published in 1987
• Told a different story to every interviewer who asked him about his childhood