Lorimer Johnston

(b. Maysville, Kentucky, 02/11/1858 – d. Hollywood, 20/02/1941). American director, actor. Lorimer George Johnston was born in the town of Maysville, Kentucky, which was also the birthplace of singer Rosemary Clooney. He came to filmmaking relatively late in life, but had a long career as stage actor before he directed his first films for the Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago. However, he made most of his many shorts for the American Film Manufacturing Company, which poached him from Selig after Allan Dwan had left the Santa Barbara-based firm. Between 1913 and 1914 he made more than 45 shorts for AFMC, often released within a few days of each other. They all starred members of its stock company, amongst them Caroline Frances Cooke, who was married to Johnston. In 1915 he made a few more shorts for companies like Universal and Vitagraph, but during 1916 he disappeared from the United States movie map because he had been recruited by I.W. Schlesinger to make the first films for African Film Productions.

Johnston and his wife sailed for Cape Town on 23 October 1915 and after their arrival spent some two months travelling throughout Southern Africa to familiarize themselves with the territory. Before their departure from the United States and then England, they were said to have secured equipment for the new Killarney Film Studios and had also engaged some actors. In South Africa he announced plans for the production of King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain (which were eventually directed by H. Lisle Lucoque) and there was talk of bringing out a celebrated Italian actor who had played in Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914), presumably Bartolomeo Pagano, who was the first Maciste. That didn't happen. Other films planned were Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, The Great Trek (which became De Voortrekkers directed by Harold M. Shaw) and a five-reel production to be called Dingaan.

The couple left South Africa in October of 1916 and arrived in San Francisco in May 1917 after a lengthy world tour. Johnston is thought to have directed nine films in South Africa: A Story of the Rand, A Zulu's Devotion, The Silver Wolf,The Illicit Liquor Seller, The Splendid Waster, The Gun Runner (not completed), Gloria, A Tragedy of the Veld and Sonny's Little Bit, five of them featuring Mrs. Johnston. After his return to the United States he directed only three more films, but continued to act in supporting, sometimes uncredited roles in films by others, amongst them A fool’s awakening (1924) by Harold M. Shaw, a fellow-American who had also been employed by AFP, and as Tarzan's uncle, Lord Greystoke, in Tarzan the Mighty (1928). (FO)