Skip to content
balasaur
Robert G. Vignola

Robert G. Vignola

Director · 1882–1953 · Trivignano, Veneto, Italy

IMDb

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 5, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-born American actor, screenwriter and film director in American cinema. One of the silent screen's most prolific directors, he made a handful of sound films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era. Born at Trivigno, in the province of Potenza, Vignola left Italy with his family at the age of 3 and was raised in upstate New York. He made his acting debut at 19 performing in "Romeo and Juliet", with Eleanor Robson Belmont and Kyrle Bellew. He began his film career as an actor in 1906 with the short film The Black Hand, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and produced by Biograph Company, generally considered the film that launched the mafia genre. In 1907 he joined Kalem Studios, for which he made numerous movies. One of Vignola's most notable film roles was as Judas Iscariot in From the Manger to the Cross (1912), directed by Sidney Olcott, one of the most successful films of the period. Vignola directed 87 films, most notably The Vampire (1913), sometimes cited as the first "vamp" movie, and Seventeen (1916), where Rudolph Valentino did an uncredited cameo. He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as Audrey (1916) and Double Crossed (1917). His biggest success was the big-budget epic When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), starring Marion Davies, which achieved critical and commercial acclaim. Other films include Déclassée (1925), with the uncredited appearance of the then unknown Clark Gable; Broken Dreams (1933), which received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival, and The Scarlet Letter (1934), the last film of Colleen Moore. Vignola died in Hollywood, California in 1953. He lived in a mansion at Whitley Heights owned by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst's mistress Marion Davies was allowed to stay without him at Vignola's mansion, worried that she was having affairs and considering Vignola a trusted companion for her as he was homosexual. He was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New York.

Directed 74

1930s

  1. 1937

    The Girl from Scotland Yard

    Director

  2. 1935

    The Perfect Clue

    Director

  3. 1934

    The Scarlet Letter

    Director

    53
  4. 1933

    Broken Dreams

    Director

1920s

  1. 1929

    The Red Sword

    Director

  2. 1928

    Tropic Madness

    Director

  3. 1927

    Cabaret

    Director

  4. 1926

    Fifth Avenue

    Director

  5. 1925

    Déclassé

    Director

  6. The Way of a Girl

    Director

  7. 1924

    Married Flirts

    Director

  8. Yolanda

    Director

  9. 1923

    Adam and Eva

    Director

  10. 1922

    When Knighthood Was in Flower

    Director

  11. The Young Diana

    Director

  12. Beauty's Worth

    Director

  13. 1921

    Enchantment

    Director

  14. The Woman God Changed

    Director

  15. Straight Is the Way

    Director

  16. The Passionate Pilgrim

    Director

  17. 1920

    The World and His Wife

    Director

  18. The 13th Commandment

    Director

1910s

  1. 1919

    More Deadly Than the Male

    Director

  2. The Third Kiss

    Director

  3. The Heart of Youth

    Director

  4. An Innocent Adventuress

    Director

  5. The Home Town Girl

    Director

  6. Experimental Marriage

    Director

  7. The Winning Girl

    Director

  8. 1918

    Women's Weapons

    Director

  9. The Savage Woman

    Director

  10. The Claw

    Director

  11. Madame Jealousy

    Director

  12. The Knife

    Director

  13. 1917

    The Hungry Heart

    Director

  14. Double Crossed

    Director

  15. The Love That Lives

    Director

  16. Her Better Self

    Director

  17. The Fortunes of Fifi

    Director

  18. Great Expectations

    Director

  19. 1916

    Seventeen

    Director

  20. The Reward of Patience

    Director

  21. Under Cover

    Director

  22. The Evil Thereof

    Director

  23. The Moment Before

    Director

  24. Audrey

    Director

  25. The Spider

    Director

  26. The Black Crook

    Director

  27. 1915

    The Maker of Dreams

    Director

  28. The Crooked Path

    Director

  29. Don Caesar de Bazan

    Director

  30. The Haunting Fear

    Director

  31. A Sister's Burden

    Director

  32. The Destroyer

    Director

  33. The Siren's Reign

    Director

  34. The Night Operator at Buxton

    Director

  35. The Scorpion's Sting

    Director

  36. 1914

    The Man of Iron

    Director

  37. The Devil's Dansant

    Director

  38. The Barefoot Boy

    Director

  39. The Vampire's Trail

    Director

  40. The Show Girl's Glove

    Director

  41. The Cabaret Dancer

    Director

  42. 1913

    Primitive Man

    Director

  43. The Vampire

    Director

  44. The Lost Diamond

    Director

  45. A Stolen Identity

    Director

  46. Man's Greed for Gold

    Director

  47. The Alien

    Director

  48. The Scimitar of the Prophet

    Director

  49. The War Correspondent

    Director

  50. The Message of the Palms

    Director

  51. 1911

    Rory O'More

    Director

No release date

  1. The Reason Why

    Director

Acted in 22

1910s

  1. 1915

    The Railroad Raiders of '62

    Railroad Engineer (archive footage) (uncredited)

  2. 1914

    The Show Girl's Glove

    Movie

  3. 1913

    The Vampire

    Movie

  4. Shenandoah

    Undetermined Role

  5. The Alien

    Paola

  6. The Scimitar of the Prophet

    Hadjji - a Mohammedan Priest

  7. The War Correspondent

    Hal Martin - the Star Reporter

  8. The Message of the Palms

    Uncle Tom - the Colonel's Servant

  9. The Prosecuting Attorney

    The Criminal

  10. The Wives of Jamestown

    Shamus O’Daly

  11. 1912

    Ireland, the Oppressed

    Michael Dee

  12. The Little Gluers

    Darby O'Drive

  13. From the Manger to the Cross

    Judas

  14. Tragedy of the Desert

    The Flirtatious Malmoud Bey

  15. Captured by Bedouins

    Judge Barnett - the Father

  16. An Arabian Tragedy

    Ayub Kashif

  17. 1911

    The Colleen Bawn

    Mr. Corrigan

  18. Rory O'More

    Black William

  19. Railroad Raiders of '62

    Engineer

  20. 1910

    The Lad from Old Ireland

    Man in Campaign Office

1900s

  1. 1908

    Over the Hills to the Poor House

    Movie

  2. 1906

    The Black Hand

    Movie

Wrote 4

1910s

  1. 1915

    Don Caesar de Bazan

    Scenario Writer

  2. 1914

    The Barefoot Boy

    Writer

  3. The Vampire's Trail

    Writer

  4. 1913

    The Vampire

    Scenario Writer