Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Woodbridge Strong "W. S." Van Dyke II (Woody) (March 21, 1889 – February 5, 1943) was an American film director and writer who made several successful early sound films, including Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932, The Thin Man in 1934, San Francisco in 1936, and six popular musicals with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director for The Thin Man and San Francisco, and directed four actors to Oscar nominations:...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Journey for Margaret
1942
Director
An American newspaperman and his wife, end up in London after several retreats in the opening days of WWII. After a shrapnel wound and loss of her ba...

Cairo
1942
Director
Reporter Homer Smith accidently draws Marcia Warren into his mission to stop Nazis from bombing Allied Conwoys with robot-planes.

I Married an Angel
1942
Director
A count who ignores an infatuated secretary thinks he has met his match when an angel from Heaven shows up.

Dr. Kildare's Victory
1942
Director
Dr. Gillespie supports Kildare's crusade against their hospital's deal with a rival hospital.

Shadow of the Thin Man
1941
Director
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.

The Feminine Touch
1941
Director
A college professor who believes there's no place for jealousy in modern marriage, John Hathaway (Don Ameche) moves with his wife, Julie (Rosalind Rus...

Rage in Heaven
1941
Director
A jealous man frames his wife's suspected lover for murder.

Bitter Sweet
1940
Director
A woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1940
as Self
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a tal...

I Love You Again
1940
Director
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.

New Moon
1940
Director
A revolutionary leader romances a French aristocrat in Louisiana.

I Take This Woman
1940
Director
On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker's suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic i...

Another Thin Man
1939
Director
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
1939
Director
Young Andy develops a crush on his drama teacher. When his play is chosen as the school's annual production, Andy seizes the opportunity to spend as m...

It's a Wonderful World
1939
Director
Detective Guy Johnson's client, Willie Heywood, is framed for murder. While Guy hides him so he can catch the real killer, both of them are nabbed by ...

Stand Up and Fight
1939
Director
A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.

Sweethearts
1938
Director
The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.

Marie Antoinette
1938
Director
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the riv...

Another Romance of Celluloid
1938
as Self (uncredited)
This second entry in MGM's "Romance of Film" series documents how celluloid movie film is processed and features behind-the-scenes glimpses of current...

Rosalie
1937
Director
West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom.

The Prisoner of Zenda
1937
Co-Director
A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king ...

They Gave Him a Gun
1937
Director
With no other prospects, a World War I veteran puts the skills they taught him in the War to use.

Personal Property
1937
Director
Raymond Dabney returns to his family after trouble with the law. He convinces the sheriff to give him a job watching the house and furniture of widow ...

After the Thin Man
1936
Director
Nick and Nora Charles investigate when Nora's cousin reports her disreputable husband is missing, and find themselves in a mystery involving the shady...

Love on the Run
1936
Director
A runaway bride and an undercover reporter get caught up in political intrigue as they lead a merry chase across Europe and uncover a spy plot.

The Devil Is a Sissy
1936
Director
A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.

His Brother's Wife
1936
Director
Epidemiologist Cliff Claybourne falls in love with Rita Wilson in a gambling house. They want to marry but Cliff's brother is convinced Rita is no goo...

San Francisco
1936
Director, Producer
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 19...

Rose Marie
1936
Director
An incognito opera singer falls for a policeman who has been assigned to track down her fugitive brother.

I Live My Life
1935
Director
A society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist.

Broadway Melody of 1936
1935
Co-Director
Lovely, gifted Irene Foster hopes that her childhood sweetheart-turned Broadway producer Robert Gordon will recognize her--and her talent. Gordon is t...

Naughty Marietta
1935
Director, Producer
In order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unli...

Forsaking All Others
1934
Director
A socialite only realises that her friend is in love with her when she falls for the wrong man.

Hide-Out
1934
Producer, Director
Wounded criminal Lucky Wilson takes refuge in a small Connecticut farm. He falls in love with the farmer's daughter who at first is unaware of his cr...

The Thin Man
1934
Director
A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.

Manhattan Melodrama
1934
Director
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.

Laughing Boy
1934
Director, Producer
A young Navajo defies tribal custom to marry an outcast.

Eskimo
1933
as Inspector White (uncredited)
The happy life of an Eskimo is disastrously changed when he mingles with an unscrupulous white trader.

Eskimo
1933
Director, Producer
The happy life of an Eskimo is disastrously changed when he mingles with an unscrupulous white trader.

The Prizefighter and the Lady
1933
Director, Producer
An ex-sailor turned boxer finds romance and gets a shot at the heavyweight title.

Penthouse
1933
Director
Gertie Waxted knows how notorious gangster Jim Crelliman runs his rackets, because she's long been under the hoodlum's thumb. She's secretly helping l...

Night Court
1932
Director
A corrupt night court judge tears an innocent young family apart in his efforts to elude a special prosecutor.

Tarzan the Ape Man
1932
Director
James Parker and Harry Holt are on an expedition in Africa in search of the elephant burial grounds that will provide enough ivory to make them rich. ...

The Cuban Love Song
1931
Director
A guilt-ridden U.S. Marine returns to Cuba to try to find the woman he promised to marry.

Guilty Hands
1931
Director
A district attorney commits the perfect murder when he kills his daughter's womanizing fiancé and then tries framing the fiancé's lover.

Never the Twain Shall Meet
1931
Director
Dan works for Pritchard and Pritchard out of San Francisco and is in love with Maisie, referred to as "the icebox" by his news reporter friend. As one...

Trader Horn
1931
Director
While on safari in an unexplored area of Africa, Trader Horn and Peru find missionary Edith Trent killed by natives. They decide to carry on her quest...

The Pagan
1929
Director
Henry, the pagan son of a white father and native mother, has inherited land and a store, but he prefers the simple life. When he falls in love with a...

White Shadows in the South Seas
1928
Director
An alcoholic doctor on a Polynesian island, disgusted by white exploitation of the natives, finds himself marooned on a pristinely beautiful island.

Under the Black Eagle
1928
Director
A German Shepherd Dog and the people he loves are entangled in World War One.

Spoilers of the West
1927
Director
A soldier falls in love with a beautiful settler who has refused his order to leave American Indian land.

Foreign Devils
1927
Director
Capt. Robert Kelly holds off the foreign mob single-handed and makes good his escape during the Boxer rebellion.

The Eyes of the Totem
1927
Director
After selling out a mining claim in the desolate and frigid north, Miriam Hardy moves to Tacoma with her husband and young daughter to start a new lif...

California
1927
Director
"The war with Mexico serves to bring together American officer and Mexican senorita, the former all ardent and the latter defiant because of the fact ...

Winners Of The Wilderness
1927
Director
During the French and Indian War the Indians under Pontiac kidnap Rene. Colonel O'Hara hopes to rescue and wed her.

War Paint
1926
Director
An Indian chief of the Arapahoe escapes the reservation where he has been living and takes along some of his warriors. The cavalry is sent out for the...

The Gentle Cyclone
1926
Director
The story is motivated by a long-standing feud, which comes to a head when each of the warring families tries to adopt an orphan girl who is about to ...
The Desert's Price
1925
Director
Returning from college, Wils McCann discovers that the long-standing feud between his family and their neighbors is actually the fault of the nasty Ma...

The Timber Wolf
1925
Director
A lumber man called the Timber Wolf comes to the aid of an old prospector.

Ranger of the Big Pines
1925
Director
A college graduate returns West after ten years in the East to her home in Sulfur Springs. Virginia's mother, the owner of a rooming house has turned ...

Hearts and Spurs
1925
Director
Oscar has been sent to the plains to make a man of himself, is soon visited by his sister Sybil Estabrook, who travels west along with her maid in tow...

The Trail Rider
1925
Director
Story of a cowboy who saves an old cobbler from being abused by a nasty banker. The banker does not take kindly to Hartwell's interfering and orders h...

Barriers Burned Away
1925
Director
In 1871, a Chicago undercover detective gets a job as a porter in a disreputable saloon to get information on a stolen painting, which he believes wil...

Gold Heels
1924
Director
A man tries to woo a woman, rescue an orphanage, and bet on the right horse.

Winner Take All
1924
Director
Perry Blair starts off as a sparring partner for a fighter, but when he knocks the guy down, manager Charles Dunham immediately sees his potential. He...
The Beautiful Sinner
1924
Director
To help secret serviceman Bill Parsons in pursuit of the thieving Benson gang wealthy criminologist Henry Avery sends his assistant Blinky to cover th...

The Battling Fool
1924
Director
William Fairbanks stars in this fighting feature about a rural rube who enters the ring to earn prize money to help a crippled girl.

Loving Lies
1924
Director
A tug boat skipper never informs his nervous wife when he has a dangerous job to do. This leads to complications when he rescues a young girl and her ...

The Little Girl Next Door
1923
Director

The Boss of Camp 4
1922
Director
To fulfill a contract entered into by his boss, Chet Fanning agrees to finish the construction within a certain amount of time. However, Andrew Paxton...

Forget Me Not
1922
Director
Young mother Mary Gordoon is too poor to take care of her infant daughter, Ann, and leaves the child at an orphanage. Ann grows up with a crippled leg...
According to Hoyle
1922
Director
"'Boxcar' Simmons, a tramp, represents himself as a mining millionaire in a small town. The population accepts him at his own valuation, and two of th...

Double Adventure
1921
Director
15 part adventure serial directed by W. S. Van Dyke survives in a Russian archive.

The Adventures of Daredevil Jack
1920
Scenario Writer, Director
Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey stars in this 15 chapter action serial, of which portions of reels 1, 2, and 4 survive. In the serial he play...

The Hawk's Trail
1919
Director
Through a forged will, a crook assumes control of a valuable estate. He poses as the brother of a dead man, and endeavors to dispose of the deceased m...

The Lady of the Dugout
1918
Director
Real life outlaw Al Jennings tells a "real" story about how he came to the aid of a woman who was abused by her alcoholic husband.

Sadie Goes to Heaven
1917
Director
Little six-year-old Sadie O'Malley, a child of the tenement district, has a vision of heaven awakened within her by the teaching of a settlement worke...

Men of the Desert
1917
Director, Writer
Some of the most sanguinary feuds in America have been fought out, not in the mountains of the south, but on the deserts of the great west, where catt...

On Trial
1917
Director
Robert Strickland, the self-confessed murderer of Gerald Trask, refuses to defend himself on the witness stand. His attorney, however, cross-examines ...

The Land of Long Shadows
1917
Director, Writer
The Land of Long Shadows is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starring Jack Gardner, Ruth King and Carl Stockdale. It ma...

Oliver Twist
1916
as Charles Dickens
An orphan named Oliver Twist meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their ...

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
as Cana Wedding Guest
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
Second Assistant Director
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Orphan Joyce
1916
Writer
The day after the funeral of their beloved daughter, Mrs. Mason unexpectedly meets young orphan Joyce and is struck by her resemblance to her lost chi...

The Birth of a Nation
1915
Assistant Director
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is capture...