Edward Sedgwick

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Edward Sedgwick
Born November 7, 1892
Galveston, Texas
Died March 7, 1953
North Hollywood, California
Other name(s) Edgar Sedgwick
Ed Sedgwick
Ed Segwick
Occupation Film director
Screenwriter
Years active 1915 - 1953

Edward Sedgwick (November 7, 1892 in Galveston, Texas – d. March 7, 1953 in North Hollywood, California) was a film director, writer, actor and producer.

Son of Edward Sedgwick, Sr. and Josephine Walker, both stage actors, young Edward Sedgewick joined his show business family as one of the Five Sedgwicks, a vaudeville act. The two other family members were Edward's twin sisters Eileen and Josie Sedgwick, who both later pursued successful silent-movie acting careers. Sedgwick broke into films as a comedian in 1915, frequently cast as a zany baseball player. He then became a serial director six years later in 1921, and moved on to the Tom Mix western unit. Sedgwick's love of baseball came in handy for the ballpark sequences of Mix's Stepping Out, Buck Jones’ Hit and Run, William Haines’ Slide, Kelly, Slide, Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman, and Robert Young’s Death on the Diamond.

Sedgwick signed with MGM in the late 1920s. There, he found a kindred spirit in fellow baseball buff Buster Keaton. Sedgwick (known informally as "Ed" or "Junior") directed all of Keaton’s MGM features, both sound and silent: The Cameraman, Spite Marriage, Free and Easy, Dough Boys (in which Sedgwick appears on screen as a dumb soldier), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, Speak Easily, Sidewalks of New York, and What! No Beer?. In 1936 Sedgwick briefly became a producer-director at Hal Roach Studios. There, he made Mister Cinderella and Pick a Star, both starring Jack Haley. The latter film featured a guest appearance by Laurel and Hardy.

Considered a relic of a bygone era by the 1940s, Sedgwick had fewer opportunities to direct (he had been replaced by a younger director an MGM feature in 1942). When Laurel and Hardy returned to MGM in late 1942, Sedgwick was chosen to direct them in Air Raid Wardens. It was his last assignment for five years, but he remained on the MGM payroll, sharing an office with the almost-as-idle Buster Keaton.

In 1948, Keaton, employed as a gagman for Red Skelton, had suggested that Sedgwick would be an ideal director for the upcoming A Southern Yankee. But Sedgwick was not up to the challenge: though he receives sole directorial credit on Southern Yankee, S. Sylvan Simon directed the film in its entirety. Sedgwick's final film was Universal's Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm.

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Persondata
NAME Sedgwick, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Film director, Screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Galveston, Texas
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1953
PLACE OF DEATH North Hollywood, California
Languages