| A. Edward Sutherland | |
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| Born | January 5, 1895 |
| Died | December 31, 1973 |
A. Edward Sutherland aka Eddie Sutherland (January 5, 1895 – December 31, 1973) was a film director and actor. Born Albert Edward Sutherland in London, he was from a theatrical family. His father, Al Sutherland, was a theatre manager and producer and his mother, Julie Ring, was a vaudeville performer. He was a nephew of both Blanche Ring and Thomas Meighan, who was married to another of his mother's sisters Frances Ring.[1] Sutherland acted in 37 known films early in his career, beginning as a Keystone Cop in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), which starred Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, and Marie Dressler.
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He was directed by Charles Chaplin in A Woman of Paris (1923), two years before Sutherland began his directing career with the help of Chaplin.
It is as a director that he is best known, and he directed over 50 movies between 1925 and 1956. His breakout film was Behind the Front (1926) which made stars of the two leads and established Sutherland as a comedic director.[2] Frequently billed as "Eddie Sutherland," he is often noted for having an especially hard time working with Stan Laurel whom he disliked ("I'd rather eat a tarantula than work with Laurel again"), while becoming close friends with the more famously acerbic W.C. Fields, with whom he established a lifelong friendship.
Mr. Sutherland's last directing assignment was working on the Mack & Myer for Hire TV comedies with Joey Faye and Mickey Deans for Sandy Howard TV Productions and Trans-Lux Television in 1965. (Info can be found at www.tvparty.com.) Sutherland was married five times. Among his wives were Marjorie Daw (from 1923 to 1925) and Louise Brooks (from July 1926 to June 1928). He and Brooks met on the set of It's the Old Army Game, which he directed and also co-starred his aunt Blanche Ring. Brooks and Sutherland did not have a happy marriage and there were numerous reports on both sides of infidelity. There were no children born from either marriage to Daw or Brooks.
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