A. Edward Sutherland
| A. Edward Sutherland | |
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| Born | January 5, 1895 |
| Died | December 31, 1973 (aged 78) |
Albert Edward Sutherland (January 5, 1895 – December 31, 1973) was a film director and actor. Born 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 Frances Ring, another of his mother's sisters.
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.
Sutherland was directed by Charles Chaplin in A Woman of Paris (1923), two years before Sutherland began his directing career with the help of Chaplin.
He is best known as a director; he directed more than 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. 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 lunch with a tarantula than work with Laurel again"). He became close friends with the more famously acerbic W.C. Fields, with whom he established a lifelong friendship.
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 which also co-starred his aunt Blanche Ring. Brooks and Sutherland did not have a happy marriage; there were numerous reports on both sides of infidelity. He did not have children in either of his marriages.
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