William Desmond Taylor - Career

Career

Changing his name to William Desmond Taylor, he was in Hollywood by December 1912 and worked successfully as an actor—including four appearances opposite Margaret "Gibby" Gibson—before making his first film as a director, The Awakening (1914). Over the next few years, he directed more than fifty films.

In July 1918, towards the end of World War I, Taylor enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a private at the age of 46. After training for four and a half months at Fort Edward, Nova Scotia, Taylor sailed from Halifax on a troop transport carrying five hundred Canadian soldiers. They arrived at Hounslow Barracks, London on 2 December 1918.

Taylor was ultimately assigned to the Royal Army Service Corps of the Expeditionary Forces Canteen Service, stationed at Dunkirk and promoted to the temporary grade of lieutenant on 15 January 1919. At the end of April, 1919, Taylor reached his final billet at Berguet, France, as Major Taylor, Company D, Royal Fusiliers.

Returning to Los Angeles on 14 May 1919, Taylor was honoured by the Motion Picture Directors Association with a formal banquet at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

After returning from military service, Taylor went on to direct some of the most popular stars of the era including Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid, Dustin Farnum and his protégée, Mary Miles Minter, who starred in the 1919 version of Anne of Green Gables. Between 1914 and 1919 Taylor was engaged to serial actress Neva Gerber, whom he had met during the filming of The Awakening. Gerber later recalled, "He was the soul of honour, a man of personal culture, education, and refinement. I have never known a finer or better man."

By this time, Taylor's ex-wife and daughter were aware that he was working in Hollywood. In 1918, both were attending the film Captain Alvarez, when they saw Taylor appear on the screen. Ethel responded, "That's your father!" In response, Ethel Daisy Deane-Tanner wrote to her father in care of the studio. In 1921, Taylor visited his ex-wife and daughter in New York City and made Ethel Daisy his legal heir.