John Paterson McGowan (24 February 1880 – 26 March 1952) was a pioneering Hollywood actor and film director, occasionally too screenwriter and stunt actor. J.P. McGowan, as he was usually known, remains the only Australian to have been made a life member of the Screen Directors Guild (now Directors Guild of America).
Born in the then-bustling railway centre, Terowie in South Australia, McGowan grew up in Adelaide and Sydney. He was a capable horserider and served in the Second Boer War with Montmorency's Scouts as a special dispatch rider.
From South Africa, McGowan was recruited to the U.S. to take part in a Boer War exhibit at the 1904 World's Fair. He then began working in live theatre and in 1910 joined Kalem Studios in New York City. That year McGowan made his first film appearance in A Lad from Old Ireland as part of the crew that traveled to Ireland to do the first ever film shot on location outside of the United States. During his acting career, his horseback riding ability saw him do many of Kalem's riding stunts.
McGowan directed the first twenty-six episodes of Kalem's 1914 adventure film series, The Hazards of Helen. While filming he began a relationship with Helen Holmes, the film's star, and the two married. They left Kalem to set up their own successful production company, Signal Films, but their collaboration ended when they divorced in 1925.
J.P. McGowan successfully made the transition from silent film to talkies. While never a major star, in a busy career that spanned four decades, he is credited with acting in 232 films, mostly strong roles like sheriff or villain, writing 26 screenplays, and directing 242 productions. In 1932 he directed a young John Wayne in the 12 episode serial, The Hurricane Express. From 1938 to 1951, as Executive Secretary of the Screen Directors Guild, he battled to secure recognition for the director role within the studio systems of the U.S. film and emerging television industry.
J.P. McGowan died in 1952 in Hollywood and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. His life story was told in the 2005 book titled J.P. McGowan: Biography of a Hollywood Pioneer by John J. McGowan (ISBN 0-7864-1994-6).
McGowan's career is celebrated biennially in the town of his birth with the Terowie Days of Rail and Screen. The adventurous, stunt-filled partnership with Helen Holmes has been celebrated in the film, 'Stunt Love', which was presented at the Adelaide Film Festival in February 2011 and at Museum of Modern Art, New York, in April 2011.
Though known, like many Australian Johns, on a personal basis as Jack, J.P. should not be confused with the younger Jack McGowan who was long a screenwriter with MGM. Many movie sales lists do make this confusion, but if the film is a light comedy or musical, that is NOT the heavyweight J.P.