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James Whale

 

James Whale, 1893-1957, English film director.

Whale had already produced several acclaimed adaptations of plays—R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End (1930), Robert Emmett Sherwood's Waterloo Bridge (1931)—before he was chosen by Carl Laemmle to direct Universal's film version of Frankenstein in 1931. Whale, impressed with his work in The Criminal Code (1931), chose Boris Karloff to play the part of the Monster.

Whale, Karloff, and Colin Clive worked together four years later in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), although Whale did not work on the third Universal movie, Son of Frankenstein (1939).

Whale's films include:

• Journey's End (1930)
• Hell's Angels (1930)
• Waterloo Bridge (1931)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• The Old Dark House (1932)
• The Impatient Maiden (1932)
• The Kiss before the Mirror (1933)
• The Invisible Man (1933)
• One More River (1934)
• By Candlelight (1934)
• Remember Last Night? (1935)
• The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)
• Show Boat (1936)
• The Road Back (1937)
• The Great Garrick (1937)
• Wives Under Suspicion (1938)
• Sinners in Paradise (1938)
• Port Of Seven Seas (1938)
• The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
• Green Hell (1940)
• They Dare Not Love (1941)
• Hello Out There (1949)

Whale is played by Ian McKellen in Gods and Monsters (1998), Bill Condon's story of the days before Whale's suicide by drowning.