William Desmond Taylor

Born in Carlow, County Cork, Ireland, Taylor was raised by his father, William Deane-Tanner, a retired major in the British Army, and his mother, Jane. When he was young, Taylor staged plays, much to his father's displeasure, and later enrolled at university in Dublin where he studied engineering. When he was 18, he left school and his native country to sail for America in pursuit of an acting career. In New York City, he acted briefly before marrying a showgirl named Ethel May Harrison in 1901 and starting work as vice president for an antiques dealer in the suburbs. In 1908, Taylor abandoned his wife and family, and spent several years traveling the U.S. and Canada, working various odd jobs including as a ranch hand in Kansas, a miner in the Yukon, and of course a stage actor. He made his way to Hollywood in 1912 where he appeared in movies like "The Counterfeiter" (1913) and "The Iconoclast" (1913), before making the transition to directing with "The Awakening" (1914). Though he continued to act, Taylor spent the next few years directing some 50-odd films, including "The Diamond from the Sky" (1915) and an adaptation of Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" (1917). After playing the title role in "Captain Alvarez" (1914), Taylor made his final appearance as an actor in "An Eye for an Eye" (1915). He went on to direct a number of pictures before joining the British Army at age 46 toward the end of World War I. Taylor was assigned a post in the Royal Army Service Corps and was stationed in Dunkirk, eventually returning to Los Angeles in January 1919, where he became president of the Motion Pictures Directors Association. While many of his pictures were later lost, Taylor was noted for directing Mary Pickford in the comedy, "How Could You, Jean?" (1918), and "Anne of Green Gables" (1919), starring Mary Miles Minter. Meanwhile, Taylor came back into contact with his daughter, Ethel Daisy Tanner, whom he had abandoned a decade earlier. The two began exchanging letters and eventually Taylor wrote her into his will, bequeathing his entire estate to her. He went on to direct what became his an adaptation of Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" (1920), "The Soul of Youth" and "The Green Temptation" (1922), his last picture.On the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, Taylor's body was found in his bungalow in a then-trendy part of downtown Los Angeles, having been shot in the back by an unknown assailant. Taylor was still in possession of several valuable items, including cash, which seemed to rule out robbery as a motivation. Meanwhile, witnesses who lived next door claimed to have seen someone dressed as a stereotypical burglar exit the house the night before, speculating that it was in fact a woman disguised as a man. As was typical for scandalous news out of the newly formed Hollywood, newspapers sensationalized the story and named numerous suspects despite lack of any solid evidence connecting them to the crime. Among the chief suspects were Taylor's former valet Edward Sands and his current valet Henry Peavey, both of whom had checkered pasts. Meanwhile, the last person to have seen Taylor alive was actress and close friend - some even speculated lover - Mabel Normand, who allegedly had an argument with the director the night of his murder. Though never an official suspect, her close association with other scandals, particularly Fatty Arbuckle's supposed rape of a starlet during a raunchy party, helped tarnish her already diminishing career.Then there was 19-year-old actress Mary Miles Minter, who was thought to have been having an affair with the much older Taylor, thanks to letters found in his home after the murder. Minter's mother, Charlotte Shelby, was a possible suspect and tied to circumstantial evidence - she owned the same type of gun used to kill Taylor, which she threw in a river when it became public, and subsequently fled the country for several years to avoid inquires. Ultimately, she was dismissed by prosecutors. Decades later, in 1964, former actress and narcotics abuser Margaret Gibson allegedly confessed to killing Taylor as she lay dying on her kitchen floor after suffering a heart attack. At the time of the murder, she was not part of the investigation, though she did receive work at Taylor's studio following his death. An unsolved case with hints of sexual intrigue and other sordid business, Taylor's murder virtually put an end to the careers of Normand and Minter, and paved the way for industry efforts to improve its image by self-censorship. The infamy of the case lived on, particularly in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), in which Gloria Swanson's delusional Norma Desmond was named after Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor. Though a prominent director in his time, Taylor's name was inextricably tied to the scandal-plagued Hollywood of the 1920s.