Quick Facts
| Intro | Canadian actor and film producer |
| Was | Film producer Actor Screenwriter Film actor Film director |
| From | Canada |
| Field | Film, TV, Stage & Radio |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 5 May 1891, Mulgrave, Canada |
| Death | 30 October 1978, Santa Barbara, USA (aged 87 years) |
| Star sign | Taurus |
Biography
Wallace Archibald MacDonald (5 May 1891 in Mulgrave, Nova Scotia, Canada – 30 October 1978 in Santa Barbara California) was a Canadian silent film actor and film producer.
Biography
MacDonald started as a messenger boy with the Dominion Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He later worked up to teller with the Royal Bank branch in Sydney before the bank transferred him to Vancouver, British Columbia. From there, he moved to California where he acted on the stage before making inroads into Hollywood.
MacDonald started as an actor in films in 1914 and starred in almost 120 motion pictures between then and 1932. He had notable roles in such films as Youth's Endearing Charm in 1916 working with Mary Miles Minter and Harry von Meter.
Late in World War I, he returned briefly to Nova Scotia to enlist in the 10th Canadian Siege Battery where he assisted in recruiting for the Canadian Army. With the advent of sound, MacDonald's acting career diminished, and most of his roles between 1927 and 1932 went uncredited. He retired from acting in 1932 to concentrate on script writing. However, by 1937 he had recognized the potential of film production. It is in his role of producer that MacDonald is now probably best remembered. He produced well over 100 films between 1937 and 1959.
He died in 1978.
Sometimes he is mistaken as a brother of actor Francis McDonald. Though they bear a physical resemblance and were born in 1891, they were born three months apart and spelled their surnames differently.
Selected filmography
As actor
- The Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914 short)
- The Rounders (1914)*short
- Dough and Dynamite (1914 short)
- Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) as Keystone Cop (uncredited)
- The Princess of Park Row (1917)
- Madame Sphinx (1918)
- Spotlight Sadie (1919)
- Cupid Forecloses (1919)
- The Little Boss (1919)
- A Girl Named Mary (1919)
- Rouge and Riches (1920)
- Trumpet Island (1920)
- Moon Madness (1920)
- Cinderella's Twin (1920)
- Are All Men Alike? (1920)
- The Foolish Matrons (1921)
- The Fire Cat (1921)
- The Sage Hen (1921)
- Youth Must Have Love (1923)
- The Day of Faith (1923)
- Maytime (1923)
- Thy Name Is Woman (1924)
- Roaring Rails (1924)
- The Heart Bandit (1924)
- Curlytop (1924)
- The Sea Hawk (1924)
- The Lady (1925)
- The Charmer (1925)
- New Lives for Old (1925)
- Pampered Youth (1925)
- The Primrose Path (1925)
- Lightnin' (1925)
- The Bar-C Mystery (1926)
- Two Can Play (1926)
- Hell's Four Hundred (1926)
- The Checkered Flag (1926)
- Fighting with Buffalo Bill (1926)
- Whispering Smith Rides (1927)
- Your Wife and Mine (1927)
- His Foreign Wife (1927)
- Blockade (1928)
- Fancy Baggage (1929)
- Darkened Rooms (1929)
- Hit the Deck (1930)
- Madam Satan (1930)
- Fighting Thru (1930)
- The Drums of Jeopardy (1931)
- The Pagan Lady (1931)
- Branded (1931)
- The Range Feud (1931)
- High Speed (1932)
- The Riding Tornado (1932)
- Daring Danger (1932)
- Two Latins from Manhattan (1941)
As writer
- Cornered (1932) (screenplay)
- The Phantom Empire (1935) (story)
As producer
- Counsel for Crime (1937)
- Murder in Greenwich Village (1937)
- Girls of the Road (1940)
- Glamour for Sale (1940)
- The Man with Nine Lives (1940) (uncredited)
- Before I Hang (1940) (uncredited)
- The Devil Commands (1941)
- Harvard, Here I Come! (1941)
- The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
- Counter-Espionage (1942)
- A Man's World (1942)
- Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943)
- Sailor's Holiday (1944)
- The Devil's Mask (1946)
- Rusty Leads the Way (1948)
- My Dog Rusty (1948)
- Rusty Saves a Life (1949)
- On the Isle of Samoa (1950)
- Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951)
- Man in the Dark (1953)
- The Nebraskan (1953)
- Return to Warbow (1958)
- Gunmen from Laredo (1959) - also directed
As director
- Free Lips (1928)
