Jacques Jaccard(1886-1960)
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
New York-born Jacques Jaccard got an early start in the film business,
appearing on-screen as an actor as early as 1913. While continuing his
acting career, he also performed behind-the-scenes duties such as
assistant director, but he found his niche as a writer and eventually
began directing also. He specialized in serials, westerns and action
films, many for Universal Pictures. However, starting around the
mid-'20s he began working for lower-rent studios like Goodwill Pictures, Syndicate Pictures and Arrow Pictures and then for cheapjack independent producers like Ben F. Wilson.
When the sound era dawned Jaccard, like many silent-era directors,
didn't adjust well to the new technologies and procedures, and while he
found work as a director, it was mostly on low-grade westerns destined
for the states-rights market. At one point he apparently was so
desperate for work that he took a job as director on one of legendary
fly-by-night, bottom-of-the-barrel producer
Robert J. Horner's productions,
The Cheyenne Kid (1930) (and,
given Horner's reputation, probably never got paid for it).
He directed his last film in 1936--a cheap western for low-rent Beaumont Pictures, Senor Jim (1936)--and worked as a screenwriter and dialogue director until he retired in 1944. He died in Los Angeles in 1960.
He directed his last film in 1936--a cheap western for low-rent Beaumont Pictures, Senor Jim (1936)--and worked as a screenwriter and dialogue director until he retired in 1944. He died in Los Angeles in 1960.
