Robert North Bradbury: Difference between revisions

American film director

Robert North Bradbury (March 23, 1886 – November 24, 1949) (born Ronald E. Bradbury) was an American film actor, director, and screenwriter. He directed 125 movies between 1918 and 1941, and is best known for directing early “Poverty Row“-produced Westerns starring John Wayne in the 1930s, and being the father of noted “cowboy actor” and film noir tough guy Bob Steele.^[1][2]

Bradbury variously billed himself as “Robert North Bradbury”, “R.N. Bradbury”, or “Robert Bradbury”. He died in Glendale, California, on November 24, 1949, at age 63.^[3]

Bradbury is most famous for directing early Westerns starring John Wayne. These inexpensively shot 1930s “Poverty Row” movies include Riders of Destiny (1933; an early singing-cowboy movie), The Lucky Texan (1934)^[4], West of the Divide (1934), Blue Steel (1934), The Man From Utah (1934), The Star Packer (1934), The Trail Beyond (1934; co-starring Noah Beery, Sr. and Noah Beery, Jr.), The Lawless Frontier (1934), Texas Terror (1935), Rainbow Valley (1935), The Dawn Rider (1935), Westward Ho (1935), and Lawless Range (1935). Many were also written by Bradbury, and almost all featured character actor George “Gabby” Hayes. ”Wayne revealed that while shooting with [him], the filmmaker “said that he thought if he placed the camera at a certain angle it would look as if my fist was making contact.” The trick became known as the “pass system,” and Wayne mentioned that “other stuntmen and directors picked up on it, and it became the established way of doing a fight.”^[5]