Raymond B. West was an American motion picture director. He joined the New York Motion Picture Company in 1910 and directed more than 70 motion pictures between 1910 and 1919 before suffering a nervous breakdown that forced him to retire from the business. He died in 1923 at age 37.

Biography

West was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1886 and attended De La Salle College there. He moved to Los Angeles in 1910 and began working as a motion picture director for Thomas H. Ince

Thomas H. Ince

Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...

 at the New York Motion Picture Company, the second motion picture studio to begin operating in Southern California. Between 1910 and 1919, West directed 70 motion pictures. In 1914 alone, West directed 28 motion pictures.

West's first important motion picture was "The Alien" based on George Beban

George Beban

George Beban was an American actor, director, writer and producer. Beban began as a child performer in San Francisco, California, and became a well-known vaudevillian and stage actor in the 1890s and 1900s...

's play "The Sign of the Rose." His most significant films include The Wolf Woman

The Wolf Woman

The Wolf Woman is a 1916 silent era drama motion picture starring Louise Glaum, Howard C. Hickman, and Charles Ray.Directed by Raymond B. West and produced by Thomas H. Ince, the screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan.-Synopsis:...

  and Civilization

Civilization (film)

Civilization is a 1916 American pacifist allegorical film about a submarine commander who refuses to fire at a civilian ocean liner supposedly carrying ammunition for his country's enemies. The film was a big-budget spectacle that was compared to both Birth of a Nation and the paintings of...

. During his ten-year career as a director, he worked with some of the biggest movie stars of the 1910s, including Bessie Barriscale

Bessie Barriscale

Bessie Barriscale was an American silent film and stage actress, and a major star for producer Thomas Ince in the late 1910s.-Early life and career:...

, Charles Ray, William Desmond

William Desmond (actor)

William Desmond was an Irish-born American actor. He appeared in 205 films between 1915 and 1948. He was nicknamed "The King of the Silent Serials."...

, Dorothy Dalton

Dorothy Dalton

Dorothy Dalton was an American silent film actress and stage personality who worked her way from a stock company to a movie career. Beginning in 1910, Dalton was a player in stock companies in Chicago and Holyoke, Massachusetts. She joined the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation vaudeville circuits...

 and Louise Glaum

Louise Glaum

Louise Glaum was an American actress. Best known for her role as a femme fatale in silent era motion picture dramas, she was credited with giving one of the best characterizations of a vamp in her early career....

. He also directed the first film starring Alice Thomas.

During his ten years in Hollywood, West was known as an expert camera man as well as a director. Many of the lighting effects that became common in the 1920s were originated, according to the Los Angeles Times, in West's "ever-active and inventive mind." In 1917, West was also credited with developing a new standard of double exposure photography while directing in The Snarl, a motion picture in which Bessie Barriscale played two parts—sisters competing for the same man.

West reportedly loved film-making "so intensely that he hardly took time to eat or sleep." He suffered a nervous breakdown in or about 1919 that ended his career as a director. He never recovered and never directed another motion picture.

He died in 1923 at his home on Horne Avenue in West Hollywood, California

West Hollywood, California

West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...

. West was survived by his wife and a son, Vincent West. His funeral was held at St. Victor's Church, and he was interred at Calvary Cemetery.

1913

• The Flame in the Ashes (1913) (actor)
• The Great Sacrifice (1913) (director)
• The Iconoclast (1913) (director)
• The Banshee (1913) (director)
• Flotsam (1913) (director)
• The Quakeress
  The Quakeress
  The Quakeress is a 1913 silent era short costume drama motion picture starring Louise Glaum, Charles Ray, and William Desmond Taylor.Directed by Raymond B. West for the Broncho Motion Picture Company, the screenplay was written by J. G...
  
   (1913) (director)
• The Waif (1913) (director)
• A Highland Romance (1913) (director)
• The Black Sheep (1913) (director)
• The Heart of Kathleen (1913) (director)
• Widow Maloney's Faith (1913) (director)
• The Ghost (1913) (director)
• The Witch of Salem
  The Witch of Salem
  The Witch of Salem is a 1913 film. The two-reel production set in the Puritan days. Prudence, a beautiful orphan, beloved by Old Hastings's son, is accused and convicted of witchcraft. She is sentenced to being burned at the stake. "Her rescue, a fight with the Indians and other thrills are...
  
   (1913) (director)
• The Filly (1913) (director)
• Eileen of Erin (1913) (director)

1914

• Shorty Falls Into a Title (1914)
• Eric the Red's Wooing (1914) (director)
• The Golden Goose (1914) (director)
• The Right to Die (1914) (director)
• The Silver Bell (1914) (director)
• The Defaulter (1914) (director)
• A Romance of the Sawdust Ring (1914) (director)
• The City (1914) (director)
• The Heart of a Crook (1914) (director)
• The Latent Spark (1914) (director)
• In the Cow Country (1914) (director)
• The Substitute (1914) (director)
• The Rightful Heir (1914) (director)
• The Geisha (1914) (director)
• The Squire's Son (1914) (director)
• The Bells of Austi (1914) (director)
• A Barrier Royal (1914) (director)
• The Path of Genius (1914) (director)
• For the Wearing of the Green (1914) (director)
• Mario (1914) (director)
• Divorce (1914) (director)
• The Informer (1914) (director)
• The Circle of Fate (1914) (director)
• The Cure (1914) (director)
• The Wrath of the Gods (1914) (special effects director)
• Harp of Tara (1914) (director)
• The House of Bondage (1914) (director)
• True Irish Hearts (1914) (director)

1915

• The Alien (1915) (assistant director)
• Mother Hulda (1915) (director)
• The Girl Who Might Have Been (1915) (director)
• The Riddle of the Wooden Leg (1915) (director)
• The Cup of Life (1915) (director)
• Rumpelstiltskin, (1915) (director)
• The Mating (1915) (director)

1916

• The Moral Fabric (1916) (director)
• Civilization
  Civilization (film)
  Civilization is a 1916 American pacifist allegorical film about a submarine commander who refuses to fire at a civilian ocean liner supposedly carrying ammunition for his country's enemies. The film was a big-budget spectacle that was compared to both Birth of a Nation and the paintings of...
  
   (1916) (director)
• The Payment (1916) (director)
• Home (1916) (director)
• The Lady from the Sea (1916) (director)
• The Wolf Woman
  The Wolf Woman
  The Wolf Woman is a 1916 silent era drama motion picture starring Louise Glaum, Howard C. Hickman, and Charles Ray.Directed by Raymond B. West and produced by Thomas H. Ince, the screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan.-Synopsis:...
  
   (1916) (director)
• The Honorable Algy (1916) (director)
• The Female of the Species (1916), also known as The Vampire (director)

1917

• The Weaker Sex (1917) (director)
• Chicken Casey (1917), also known as Waifs (director)
• The Snarl (1917) (director)
• Whither Thou Goest (1917) (director)
• Madcap Madge (1917) (director)
• Borrowed Plumage (1917) (director)
• Wooden Shoes (1917) (director)
• Ten of Diamonds (1917) (director)
• Those Who Pay (1917) (director)

1918

• The Cast-Off (1918) (director)
• Within the Cup (1918) (director)
• Blindfolded (1918) (director)
• Patriotism (1918) (director)
• Maid o' the Storm (1918) (director)

External links

• West filmography at IMDB