Jacques Jaccard

Jacques Jaccard was an American film director, writer and actor whose achievements in cinema were mostly in silent film. He directed 86 films and wrote the scripts for almost 80 films. The best-known of his films as a director was The Diamond from the Sky (1915).

Biography

Jaccard told reporters he was born in New York City and educated in France. He moved back to the U.S. around 1913 and began a career as an actor and assistant director, specializing in western and action films at Universal early on. In the mid-1920s, after returning from serving in World War I, he began working for lower-rent studios such as Goodwill Pictures, Syndicate Pictures, and Arrow Pictures.

When movies with sound became popular, Jaccard's career went downhill; he directed his last film, Señor Jim, in 1936. After that, he worked as a screenwriter and dialogue director. In 1940, he rejoined Universal's serial department as a dialogue coach, working on popular serials such as Gang Busters and Adventures of the Flying Cadets. Jaccard retired in 1944 and died in Los Angeles in 1960.

Jaccard was married at least three times. His wife Helen Leslie (real name Helen Reisling) was an actress, as was Catherine Dirking (who went by the stage name Joan Jaccard during their brief marriage). Dirking was only 16 when she married Jaccard in 1926; the pair divorced in 1933. Some newspapers reported that he was also briefly married to Betty Blythe.

Selected filmography

• Desert Guns (1936)
• Rio Grande Ranger (1936)
• Senor Jim (1936)
• The Hawk (1931)
• One Splendid Hour (1929)
• Montmartre Rose (1929)
• The Fire Fighters (1927)
• Unseen Hands (1924)
• Riders of the Plains (1924)
• The Miracle Baby (1923)
• The Wild Wild West (1921)
• Crossed Clues (1921)
• Who Was the Man? (1921)
• The Vanishing Dagger (1920)
• 'If Only' Jim (1920)
• The Lion's Claws (1918)
• The Red Ace (1917)
• Liberty (1916)
• The Wedding Guest (1916)
• The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring (1916)
• The Passing of Hell's Crown (1916)
• The Night Riders (1916)
• Stampede in the Night (1916)
• A Knight of the Range (1916)
• The Diamond from the Sky (1915)
• A Blowout at Santa Banana (1914)
• Destinies Fulfilled (1914)
• The Call of the Traumerei (1914)
• Rose of San Juan (1913)
• Personal Magnetism (1913)
• American Born (1913)
• In the Mountains of Virginia (1913)
• Trapped in a Forest Fire (1913)