Biography
William Nigh (October 12, 1881 – November 27, 1955) was an American film director, writer, and actor. His film work sometimes lists him as either "Will Nigh" or "William Nye". He was born in Berlin, Wisconsin. His film career began with acting in 17 films in 1913 and 1914; he also directed one of these, Salomy Jane. He acted in 8 more films in the 1910s and two more in the 1920s, but directed a total of 119 films, the last in 1948. His film-writing credits numbered 18, mostly concentrated earl...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Stage Struck
1948
Director
A young woman's murder sheds light on a crooked talent agency.

I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes
1948
Director
An innocent dancer is accused of murder after his shoe prints are found at the scene, but his wife follows the trail of clues to find the real perpetr...

Riding the California Trail
1947
Director
Chasing women and staying one step ahead of the law, the Cisco Kid meets Raquel and then Dolores. He sees that Raole is the boy friend of Raquel but e...

Beauty and the Bandit
1946
Director
In Old California, a young Frenchman transporting a chest full of silver travels by stagecoach to San Marino, to complete a complex business deal. The...

South of Monterey
1946
Director
The Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) hears of a land-swindling scheme devised by the police Commandante (Martin Garralaga) and the tax collector (Harry Wood...

Partners in Time
1946
Director
Squire Skimp has a new plan to swindle the people of Pine Ridge. However, Lum has something more important on his mind. He has to tell a young engaged...

The Gay Cavalier
1946
Director
The Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) sets out on a double mission of rescuing a girl from forsaking her true love by marrying a supposedly wealthy suitor to...

Allotment Wives
1945
Director
Unscrupulous women marry servicemen for their pay.

Divorce
1945
Director
A woman who has been married and divorced five times comes back to her small hometown, where she proceeds to complicate, and potentially destroy, the ...

Forever Yours
1945
Director, Screenplay
A young woman who has been stricken with infantile paralysis gives up hope and is trying to "will herself" to die. A doctor who has been conducting ex...
Are These Our Parents?
1944
Director
A mother's preference for partying, boozing and running around with an assortment of sleazy characters results in her neglecting her nubile teenage da...

Trocadero
1944
Director
A newspaper columnist and host of his own national network radio program, interviewing more film personalities on his show than any other commentator,...

Where Are Your Children?
1943
Director
Judy Wilson (Gale Storm), feeling neglected because both of her parents are working in defense plants, meets and falls in love with Danny Chester (Jac...

The Underdog
1943
Director
During WWII, a strong-willed 12-year-old boy tries to steer his vocationally and maritally confused father straight, at the same time striving to keep...

The Ghost and the Guest
1943
Director
Newlyweds Webster and Jackie Frye spend their honeymoon in a sinister old country house. Before long, they are besieged by a gang of crooks, searching...

Corregidor
1943
Director
A doctor and his staff in a hospital on the Philippine island of Corregidor shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor try to treat the sick, i...

Lady from Chungking
1942
Director
During World War II, Chinese guerrillas fight against the occupying Japanese forces. A young woman is the secret leader of the villagers, who plot to ...
City of Silent Men
1942
Director
The plot revolves around a group of ex-convicts who try to start life anew by relocating in a small town under assumed names. The mayor of the town we...

Tough as They Come
1942
Director
The 'Dead End Kids & Little Tough Guys' are working as collectors for a finance company, when they discover the company's illegal activities and t...

Escape from Hong Kong
1942
Director
Three American vaudeville entertainers become involved with spies in Hong Kong, just before Pearl Harbor.

The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
1942
Director
Private eye Jerry Church is hired by a criminal defense lawyer after five mobsters he has gotten acquitted are apparently strangled by a serial killer...

Black Dragons
1942
Director
It is prior to the commencement of World War II, and Japan's fiendish Black Dragon Society is hatching an evil plot with the Nazis. They instruct a br...

Mr. Wise Guy
1942
Director
The gang is sent to the Wilton Reform School after they are unjustly convicted of stealing a truck. Bill Collins, brother of co-leader Danny, becomes ...

Zis Boom Bah
1941
Director
"Hey, kids, let's get together and put on a show!" That's the idea behind this raucous spoof about a vaudeville performer who's sent to college to spy...

Mob Town
1941
Director
Wayward youths get out of trouble thanks to a policeman.

The Kid from Kansas
1941
Director
Competition among fruit growers takes a nasty turn when the main buyer offers unrealistically low prices for their crops.

No Greater Sin
1941
Director
The dangers of the dread venereal disease syphilis are depicted in this earnest drama from the 1940s. The story centers upon an intrepid health commis...
Secret Evidence
1941
Director
A legal secretary with a loving family who is happily engaged to a successful young attorney receives a surprise visit from her bad-news former boyfri...

The Ape
1940
Director
Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs human spinal fluid to complete the formula for his experime...

Doomed to Die
1940
Director
Shipping magnate Cyrus Wentworth, downcast over a disaster to his ocean liner 'Wentworth Castle' (carrying, oddly enough, an illicit shipment of Chine...

Son of the Navy
1940
Director
A runaway boy pretends to be the son of a Navy man, only to turn both their lives upside down.

The Fatal Hour
1940
Director
When a police officer is murdered, Captain Street looks to Mr. Wong to catch the killer. Prime Suspect: Frank Belden Jr., whose father is a businessma...

Mutiny in the Big House
1939
Director
A young man forges a check in order to help his mother, but is caught and sentenced to 14 years in prison...

Mr. Wong in Chinatown
1939
Director
A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to ...

Streets of New York
1939
Director
Jimmy, an idealistic and hard-working young man, has just arrived in New York City with dreams of making his fortune. Along the way he faces numerous ...

The Mystery of Mr. Wong
1939
Director
Detective James Lee Wong must find the "Eye of the Daughter of the Moon," a priceless but cursed sapphire stolen in China and smuggled to America. His...

I Am a Criminal
1938
Director
In this crime drama, a gangster uses an innocent newsboy to manipulate the jury just prior to his manslaughter trial. The 10-year-old newsboy idolizes...

Gangster's Boy
1938
Director
A popular high school valedictorian and star athlete becomes a pariah when it's discovered that his father is a former bootlegger.

Mr. Wong, Detective
1938
Director
A chemical manufacturer is killed just after asking detective James Wong to help him. So detective Wong decides to investigate this as well as two sub...

Romance of the Limberlost
1938
Director
An orphaned girl is being raised in the Limberlost by her aunt, who hates her because the girl's mother married the man that the aunt loved. The girl'...

Female Fugitive
1938
Director
Police set up a dragnet to trap an outlaw's wife whom they believe to be his accomplice.

Rose of the Rio Grande
1938
Director
The story, based on a novel by Johnston (Zorro) McCulley, concerns a group of aristocratic vigilantes, who go about trying to restore their prominence...

Boy of the Streets
1938
Director
Cocky young street kid worships his father, a sleazy political operative.

A Bride for Henry
1937
Director
On the day of her wedding a young woman's fiancé doesn't show up, sleeping off the results of the previous night's wild bachelor party. Miffed, the wo...
Atlantic Flight
1937
Director
Famous pioneer aviator Dick Merrill was front-page news in the 1930s, so it's understandable that he was summoned to Hollywood to star in his own film...

Hoosier Schoolboy
1937
Director
A schoolteacher comes to a new town and finds herself caught up in the town's problems and disputes.

The 13th Man
1937
Director
A tough district attorney has been cleaning up the town, and has already imprisoned twelve dangerous criminals. As he is about to name the target for ...

The Law Commands
1937
Director
Night riders are terrorizing homesteaders, and the town doctor tries to keep the locals from forming a vigilante group. After more towns people are ki...

Bill Cracks Down
1937
Director
William Reardon, a steel magnate, dies and leaves a strange will. When his spineless and dandified heir and son returns home from living in Paris, he ...

North of Nome
1936
Director
John Raglan is a seal hunter being hounded by hijackers, so he strands himself on an isolated island in the Bering Sea that is owned by a corporation....

Crash Donovan
1936
Director
A California Highway Patrolman gets involved with a smuggling ring.

The Old Homestead
1935
Director
A New York radio talent scout turns up at a barn dance.

His Night Out
1935
Director
When a meek purchasing agent is told by a quack doctor that he only has three months to live, he gets involved with a bank robbery and kidnapped by th...

She Gets Her Man
1935
Director
Esmeralda is a cook in a diner in a small Arkansas town. When a gang of crooks moves into town and plots a bank robbery, Esmeralda unintentionally wre...

Dizzy Dames
1935
Director
A musical comedy in a theatrical boarding house.

The Headline Woman
1935
Director
When the daughter of a newspaper publisher is falsely charged with murder, a reporter on her father's paper goes into hiding with her. At first hoping...

Without Children
1935
Director
Struggling architect David Cole is encouraged by his boss, Phil Graham, to fraternize with high society as a means of drumming up business. This inadv...
Sweepstake Annie
1935
Director
A young woman who works in the movie business buys a sweepstakes ticket that turns out to be a winner. Her stroke of luck changes her life around--and...

The Mysterious Mr. Wong
1935
Director
Mr. Wong is a "harmless" Chinatown shopkeeper by day and relentless blood-thirsty pursuer of the Twelve Coins of Confucius by night. With possession o...

Two Heads on a Pillow
1934
Director
A lawyer handing a divorce case discovers the attorney for the opposition is his ex-wife.

Monte Carlo Nights
1934
Director
A man wrongfully convicted of murder escapes custody and goes in search of the real killer. The problem is that he only has one clue to go on.

City Limits
1934
Director
The wealthy president of a big railroad, who's beginning to crumble under the combined pressure of business, personal and physical problems, meets up ...

House of Mystery
1934
Director
Out of the Mystic Temples of Old India crept this terrible Monster to wreak vengeance of the Hindu Gods. One by one its victims fell with not a trace ...

School for Girls
1934
Director
After being convicted of stealing some jewels, Annette Eldrige is sent to a reformatory administered by a sadistic and corrupt female warder. However,...

Mystery Liner
1934
Director
Police try to solve a murder on board an ocean liner.

He Couldn't Take It
1933
Director
Jimmy Kelly, who can't hold on to a job because of his hot temper, finds his calling as a process server. He serves process on a gangster and exposes ...

Men Are Such Fools
1932
Director
An immigrant and his wife arrive in America hoping to make it big in the world of music. Shortly thereafter, though, the husband finds out his wife is...

Border Devils
1932
Director
Jim Gray is looking for the gang leader known as the General. When Neil Denham is murdered, Jim assumes his identity. He and his pal Squint Saunders t...

Without Honor
1932
Director
Pete Marlan is a gambler with an unsavory past. Suspected of being an outlaw, Pete plays along with this misconception, the better to infiltrate a gan...

The Sea Ghost
1931
Director, Writer
A crooked lawyer trying to cheat a young girl out of her inheritance tries to convince a sea captain to help him. Re-released in 1939 as "Phantom Sub...

The Single Sin
1931
Director
A lady-bootlegger does her 90 days in jail, gets released and becomes the secretary for a prominent millionaire. The magnate falls madly in love with ...

Fighting Thru
1930
Director
Dan and Tennessee are successful gold miners. Ace Brady learns of their success and sends Fox to rob them. During the robbery Fox shoots Tennessee and...

Today
1930
Director
A wealthy young society couple loses their fortune. When the husband is forced to take a job like everyone else, the wife cannot deal with the sudden ...

Lord Byron of Broadway
1930
Director
A talented songwriter gets his inspiration for songs from others and not from within himself. He is oblivious that he may harm other people when he us...

Thunder
1929
Director
A train operator's obsession with being on time leads to tragedy for his family.

Desert Nights
1929
Director, Producer
A con man with his beautiful accomplice and a hostage steals a half million dollars worth of diamonds but finds they're all lost in the desert without...

Four Walls
1928
Director
After completing his prison sentence for killing a rival gang leader in self-defence, Benny Horowitz decides to go straight.

Across to Singapore
1928
Director, Producer
While Joel and his older ship's captain brother Mark are at sea, the latter is abandoned in Singapore by devious ship's mate Finch who, upon their ret...

The Law of the Range
1928
Director
Jim Lockhart is out to capture the robbing and murdering "Solitaire Kid".

Mr. Wu
1927
Director, Producer
When Mandarin Wu's unmarried daughter becomes pregnant by a young Englishman, he seeks vengeance.

The Fire Brigade
1926
Director
Terry O'Neill is the youngest of a family of Irish firefighters. He falls in love with Helen Corwin, but complications ensue when Terry learns that he...
Casey of the Coast Guard
1926
Director
Film serial.

The Little Giant
1926
Director
Having been brought up by his Uncle Clem, an itinerant peddler, Elmer Clinton has no trouble becoming the sales manager for a company that manufacture...

Born Rich
1924
Writer, Director, Producer
When a wealthy young lady leaves the US to visit her aunt in France, her husband falls in love with a "flapper". When the wife returns home, she finds...

Rags to Riches
1922
Writer
A rich young boy has to prove his worth to the gang he has just joined by during all sorts of hardships, including a kidnap attempt, before they'll ac...

Your Best Friend
1922
Director, Writer
A Jewish mother in New York finds herself at odds with her son's new wife, a pretty Gentile girl.

School Days
1921
Director, Writer, Story
A naive young man raised poor in a small town, comes to New York City to make his fortune. Overwhelmed by the city's hustle and bustle, and entranced ...

Why Girls Leave Home
1921
Director, Writer
Mr. Hedder is an old fashioned man who will not let his daughter Anna own an evening gown, but she is given one by a friend who is a model. Hedder bel...

The Soul of Man
1921
as David Fortune

The Soul of Man
1921
Director

Democracy: The Vision Restored
1920
as David Fortune
A powerful financial magnate is plotted against by his greedy son.

Democracy: The Vision Restored
1920
Director
A powerful financial magnate is plotted against by his greedy son.

Beware!
1919
as German Officer
The American ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard warns that Germany will rise again to power and an attempt at world domination unless safeguards ar...

Beware!
1919
Director
The American ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard warns that Germany will rise again to power and an attempt at world domination unless safeguards ar...
The Fighting Roosevelts
1919
Director
A dramatization of the life of Theodore Roosevelt leading up to his presidency of the United States

Kaiser's Finish
1918
Editor
During World War I, an illegitimate son of the German Kaiser, who had been raised in the US--and is a double for the Kaiser's son, the Crown Prince--i...

The Rainbow Trail
1918
as Shad
Following in his dad's footsteps, Shefford devotes himself to freeing his community from the grip of a particularly despotic Mormon sect. In so doing,...

My Four Years in Germany
1918
as Socialist
The experiences of the American ambassador to Germany, James Gerard, are recounted in this semi-documentary.

My Four Years in Germany
1918
Director, Writer
The experiences of the American ambassador to Germany, James Gerard, are recounted in this semi-documentary.

Wife Number Two
1917
Scenario Writer, Director, Screenplay
Bored by her country life and misunderstood by her parents, Emma Rolfe marries Dr. Charles Bovar, an older man whose dedication to his medical practic...

The Slave
1917
Director, Scenario Writer, Screenplay
Caroline works at a hair dressing parlor. A wealthy man falls in love with her, takes her home and proposes to her. Caroline has a dream where she mar...

Notorious Gallagher; or, His Great Triumph
1916
as Buttsy Gallagher
"Buttsy" Gallagher is a harmless young product of the slums. In all his life he has never been of the slightest importance. His spirit is so submerged...

Notorious Gallagher; or, His Great Triumph
1916
Director, Scenario Writer
"Buttsy" Gallagher is a harmless young product of the slums. In all his life he has never been of the slightest importance. His spirit is so submerged...

The Kiss of Hate
1916
Director
When Count Peter Turgeneff, his daughter, Nadia, and Paul, his generous-hearted son, came to live in the Governor's palace in the Russian province of ...
Her Debt of Honor
1916
as Olin Varcoe
Marian Delmar, whose father has died without an estate, believes he has left her a settlement. The film follows Marian's journey as she navigates this...
Her Debt of Honor
1916
Director, Scenario Writer
Marian Delmar, whose father has died without an estate, believes he has left her a settlement. The film follows Marian's journey as she navigates this...

A Yellow Streak
1915
Writer, Director
Wall street broker Barry Dale is systematically ruined financially by his alleged best friend Richard Marvin . This Marvin does so that he can win Dal...

Emmy of Stork's Nest
1915
Director
Through the death of his father, Benton Cabot is left with nothing but a small mountain cabin which he has never seen. He goes to take up his property...

A Royal Family
1915
as Minister of Police
The King of Kurland suggests a marriage between his son, the crown prince, and Angela, the Princess of Arcacia, to defuse tensions between their tiny ...

A Royal Family
1915
Director
The King of Kurland suggests a marriage between his son, the crown prince, and Angela, the Princess of Arcacia, to defuse tensions between their tiny ...
Story of Jewel City
1915
Director
The little fantasy film The Story of Jewel City was made for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. It stars two little girls otherwise ...

Salomy Jane
1914
as Rufe Waters
When beautiful Salomy Jane resists the romantic advances of a young ruffian, she is rescued by Jack Dart, who has his own additional reasons for tangl...

Salomy Jane
1914
Director
When beautiful Salomy Jane resists the romantic advances of a young ruffian, she is rescued by Jack Dart, who has his own additional reasons for tangl...

The Star Boarder
1914
as Boarder (uncredited)
A fun-loving little boy's magic lantern show exposes some indiscreet moments between his landlady mother and her star boarder.

The Waiters' Picnic
1913
as The Head Waiter
Louis, the chef and Oscar, the head waiter, are in love with Mabel the pretty cashier. The Waiters' picnic is held, and Mabel is the cause of much tro...