Walter Lang
Walter Richard Lang was an American film director.
Early life
Walter Lang was born in Memphis, Tennessee. As a young man he went to New York City where he found clerical work at a film production company. The business piqued his artistic instincts and he began learning the various facets of filmmaking and eventually worked as an assistant director. However, Lang also had ambitions to be a painter and left the United States for a time to join the great gathering of artists and writers in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France. Things did not work out as Lang hoped and he eventually returned home and to the film business.Career
In 1925, Walter Lang directed his first silent film, The Red Kimono. In the mid-1930s, he was hired by 20th Century Fox where, as a director, he "painted" a number of the spectacular colorful musicals for which Fox Studios became famous for producing during the 1940s. One of Lang's most recognized films is the lavish adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and his star, Yul Brynner, won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Another is State Fair, also a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, which was shown to servicemen around the world in the last months of World War II.For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Walter Lang has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6520 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Lang was married to Madalynne Field from 1937 until his death. Field, a former actress, had met and befriended Carole Lombard when they were employed as Sennett Bathing Beauties in the late 1920s. Field's film career ended with the demise of Sennett's studio. However, she maintained her friendship with Lombard, and acted as Lombard's secretary until her marriage. She met Lang when he directed Lombard in Love Before Breakfast. Lang was buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery, in Inglewood, California.Filmography
The Red Kimono The Earth Woman The Golden Web Money to Burn The Ladybird The Satin Woman Sally in Our Alley By Whose Hand? The College Hero The Night Flyer Alice Through a Looking Glass The Desert Bride The Spirit of Youth Hello Sister Cock o' the Walk The Big Fight The Costello Case Brothers Command Performance Hell Bound Women Go on Forever No More Orchids The Warrior's Husband Meet the Baron Whom the Gods Destroy The Party's Over The Mighty Barnum Carnival Hooray for Love Love Before Breakfast Top of the Town Wife, Doctor and Nurse Second Honeymoon The Baroness and the Butler I'll Give a Million The Little Princess Susannah of the Mounties The Blue Bird Star Dust The Great Profile Tin Pan Alley Moon Over Miami Week-End in Havana Song of the Islands The Magnificent Dope Coney Island Greenwich Village State Fair Claudia and David Sentimental Journey Mother Wore Tights Sitting Pretty When My Baby Smiles at Me You're My Everything Cheaper by the Dozen The Jackpot On the Riviera With a Song in My Heart Call Me Madam There's No Business Like Show Business The King and I Desk Set But Not for Me Can-Can The Marriage-Go-Round Snow White and the Three StoogesDirected Academy Award performances
Under Lang's direction, these actors have received Academy Award wins and nominations for their performances in their respective roles.