WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR

Another forgotten Irish director from the silent era. Born in Carlow he moved to America and then on to Hollywood. Starting as an actor he progressed to directing and became successful. Then he was murdered. It wasn't until the 1960s when legendary director King Vidor (Stella Dallas, Fountainhead, Ruby Gentry) uncovered the facts and a young actress was blamed for the killing. There were so many suspects that it was first thought it was another actress. The story was turned into a screenplay and then a book came out in the '70s. Taylor's death was one of the reasons that Hollywood in the silent era had to introduce a code of conduct to clean up the movie business. Also, Taylor was the inspiration for the name of the Norma Desmond character in the classic movie Sunset Boulevard.