Tay Garnett(1894-1977)
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered
films in 1920 as a screenwriter. After a stint as a gag writer for
Mack Sennett and
Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the
distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began
directing for that company. Garnett garnered some attention in the
early 1930s with such films as
One Way Passage (1932) and
Her Man (1930), but his best work came in
the mid-'30s and early 1940s with such films as
China Seas (1935),
Slave Ship (1937) and
Seven Sinners (1940). His best
known film would have to the
John Garfield/Lana Turner
vehicle
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946),
although his version of
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
was a well-deserved critical and commercial success as well. Garnett
journeyed to England in the early 1950s for several films, but upon his
return made only a few pictures before jumping enthusiastically into
television. He resurfaced on the big screen in the early 1970s to shoot
a pair of minor outdoor epics in Alaska, then retired. He died of
leukemia in 1977.
