Sidney Lanfield(1898-1972)
- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
After a stint as a jazz musician and a vaudeville entertainer, Sidney
Lanfield was hired by Fox Film Corp. in 1926 as a gag writer and
brought to Hollywood. Making his debut as a director in 1930, he
specialized in romances and light comedies, directing many of Bob Hope's
films in the 1930s and 1940s. One of his most successful films,
however, was also one of his most atypical: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), a brooding,
atmospheric thriller that introduced Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.
Lanfield divided the rest of his career between 20th Century-Fox and
Paramount; while none of his films were particularly memorable, they
were well-crafted, solid entertainment. In the early 1950s he was one
of the first major directors to turn to series television, and he ended
his career there in the mid-'60s, directing episodes of, among others,
McHale's Navy (1962) and The Addams Family (1964).
