Robert G. Vignola

Birthday: 1882-08-05
Deathday: 1953-10-25
Birthplace: Trivignano, Veneto, Italy
Gender: Male

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 5, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-born American actor, screenwriter and film director in American cinema. One of the silent screen's most prolific directors, he made a handful of sound films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era. Born at Trivigno, in the province of Potenza, Vignola left Italy with his family at the age of 3 and was raised in upstate New York. He made his acting debut at 19 performing in "Romeo and Juliet", with Eleanor Robson Belmont and Kyrle Bellew.

He began his film career as an actor in 1906 with the short film The Black Hand, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and produced by Biograph Company, generally considered the film that launched the mafia genre. In 1907 he joined Kalem Studios, for which he made numerous movies. One of Vignola's most notable film roles was as Judas Iscariot in From the Manger to the Cross (1912), directed by Sidney Olcott, one of the most successful films of the period.

Vignola directed 87 films, most notably The Vampire (1913), sometimes cited as the first "vamp" movie, and Seventeen (1916), where Rudolph Valentino did an uncredited cameo. He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as Audrey (1916) and Double Crossed (1917).

His biggest success was the big-budget epic When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), starring Marion Davies, which achieved critical and commercial acclaim. Other films include Déclassée (1925), with the uncredited appearance of the then unknown Clark Gable; Broken Dreams (1933), which received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival, and The Scarlet Letter (1934), the last film of Colleen Moore.

Vignola died in Hollywood, California in 1953. He lived in a mansion at Whitley Heights owned by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst's mistress Marion Davies was allowed to stay without him at Vignola's mansion, worried that she was having affairs and considering Vignola a trusted companion for her as he was homosexual.

He was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New York.

Credits

Year Title
1937-05-30 The Girl from Scotland Yard
1935-03-13 The Perfect Clue
1934-09-18 The Scarlet Letter
1933-10-19 Broken Dreams
1928-12-19 Tropic Madness
1927-03-26 Cabaret
1926-01-24 Fifth Avenue
1925-04-11 Déclassé
1925-03-29 The Way of a Girl
1924-10-27 Married Flirts
1924-09-15 Yolanda
1923-02-11 Adam and Eva
1922-09-15 When Knighthood Was in Flower
1922-08-27 The Young Diana
1922-05-14 Beauty's Worth
1921-10-29 Enchantment
1921-07-03 The Woman God Changed
1921-03-06 Straight Is the Way
1921-01-02 The Passionate Pilgrim
1920-07-18 The World and His Wife
1920-01-17 The 13th Commandment
1919-03-10 Experimental Marriage
1919-02-23 The Winning Girl
1918-11-24 Women's Weapons
1918-06-10 The Claw
1918-02-01 The Knife
1917-07-09 The Love That Lives
1917-05-21 Her Better Self
1917-02-26 The Fortunes of Fifi
1917-01-08 Great Expectations
1916-11-02 Seventeen
1916-07-20 Under Cover
1916-06-05 The Evil Thereof
1916-04-27 The Moment Before
1916-01-27 The Spider
1916-01-10 The Black Crook
1915-08-02 The Maker of Dreams
1915-07-19 The Crooked Path
1915-06-26 Don Caesar de Bazan
1915-06-25 Honor Thy Father
1915-06-11 The Haunting Fear
1915-05-10 A Sister's Burden
1915-04-30 The Destroyer
1915-04-02 The Siren's Reign
1915-03-13 The Night Operator at Buxton
1915-01-13 The Stolen Ruby
1915-01-06 The Scorpion's Sting
1914-12-16 The Hate That Withers
1914-12-09 The Mystery of the Yellow Sunbonnet
1914-11-30 Her Bitter Lesson
1914-11-16 The Man of Iron
1914-11-11 A Midnight Tragedy
1914-10-28 The Menace of Fate
1914-10-21 The False Guardian
1914-10-14 Seed and the Harvest
1914-09-15 Into the Depths
1914-09-07 The Devil's Dansant
1914-09-01 The Hand of Fate
1914-09-01 The Barefoot Boy
1914-08-18 The Storm at Sea
1914-08-03 The Vampire's Trail
1914-06-24 Through the Flames
1914-06-22 The Show Girl's Glove
1914-04-06 The Cabaret Dancer
1914-02-23 The Shadow
1914-01-07 Her Husband's Friend
1913-11-22 Primitive Man
1913-10-15 The Vampire
1913-09-08 The Bribe
1913-07-14 The Lost Diamond
1913-07-07 A Stolen Identity
1913-07-05 The Hidden Witness
1913-05-26 A Victim of Heredity
1913-05-14 Man's Greed for Gold
1913-05-07 The Alien
1913-04-11 The Scimitar of the Prophet
1913-03-08 The War Correspondent
1913-02-26 The Message of the Palms
1911-09-03 Rory O'More