Wallace Worsley

Wallace Worsley
Jack Holt, Wallace and Charles Schoenbaum on the set of Nobody's Money (1923)
Born	Wallace Ashley Worsley (1878-12-08)December 8, 1878 Wappingers Falls, New York
Died	March 26, 1944(1944-03-26) (aged 65) Hollywood, California
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Occupation	film director
Years active	1918–1928
Spouse(s)	Julia M. Taylor (1878–1976)
Children	Wallace Worsley, Jr. (1908-91) Paul B. Worsley (1920-33)

Wallace A. Worsley, Sr. (December 8, 1878 - March 26, 1944) was an American stage actor who became a film director in the silent era. During his career, Worsley directed 29 films and acted in 7 films. He directed several motion pictures starring Lon Chaney Sr., and his professional relationship with the actor was the best Chaney had, second to his partnership with Tod Browning.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) is one of his best-known works and along with The Penalty (1920), enjoys good exposure on home video and DVD. Worsley's 1922 horror film A Blind Bargain with Chaney is one of the most sought after lost films.

Worsley was born in Wappingers Falls, New York, the only surviving of two children, to first-generation Americans, Ashley Worsley, a civil engineer, born in Rhode Island, and Maria Goring, born in New York. Both pairs of his grandparents emigrated from England to the United States prior to the turn of the twentieth century.

Worsley married Indiana-born actress, Julia Marie Taylor, on September 18, 1904. Amongst Julia's film credits is the title role of Juliet in the 1911 short, Romeo and Juliet, directed by Barry O'Neil, considered to be the first attempt to distill the entire Shakespeare narrative into a single film. Together, they had two sons, Wallace Worsley, Jr. (1908-1991), an assistant director and production manager whose career spanned nearly six decades and included The Wizard of Oz and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Paul Brackenride Worsley (1920-1933), who predeceased his parents at the age of 12.