Spencer Gordon Bennet

Spencer Gordon Bennet (January 5, 1893 – October 8, 1987) was an American film producer and director. Known as the "King of Serial Directors", he directed more film serials than any other director.

Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bennet first entered show business as a stunt man, when he answered a newspaper ad to jump from the Palisades of the Hudson River while wearing a suit for the serial film Hurricane Hutch (1921). The gig at that time paid $1 per foot he had to fall.

He made his directorial debut in 1921's Behold the Man but made his serial directorial debut in 1925 with Sunken Silver. He would keep making serials, as well as B-Western features, until the very end of the genre, directing the last two serials made in the United States, Blazing the Overland Trail (1956) and Perils of the Wilderness (1956). After the serials ended he directed a handful of features, his final directorial credit being 1965's The Bounty Killer, which was also the final film to feature pioneering cowboy star Broncho Billy Anderson. When he died in 1987,he was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, his tombstone was engraved "His Final Chapter".

Over his long career Bennet directed over 100 serials, including both Superman serials, The Adventures of Sir Galahad, Batman and Robin, The Tiger Woman, Captain Video, and numerous western serials. Among his western "B" features were his long-running Red Ryder series, featuring Wild Bill Elliott and Allan Rocky Lane.

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive preserved two of Spencer Gordon Bennet's films, "Hawk of the Hills" and "Snowed In."^[1][2]

Selected filmography

• Marked Money (1928)
• Rogue of the Rio Grande (1930)
• Rescue Squad (1935)
• Western Courage (1935)
• Ranger Courage (1936)
• Rio Grande Ranger (1936)
• The Fugitive Sheriff (1936)
• The Unknown Ranger (1936)
• Canyon City (1943)
• Batman and Robin (1949)

References

External links

• Spencer Gordon Bennet at IMDb
• Spencer Gordon Bennet at Find a Grave