Fred Niblo

Former vaudevillian (his first wife, Josephine, was the sister of George M. Cohan) and stage director who began working for the Ince studio in 1917. Niblo began his screen career turning out silent films starring his second wife, Enid Bennett. Handling mostly romantic costume spectacles, he directed Rudolph Valentino ("Blood and Sand" 1922), Douglas Fairbanks ("The Mark of Zorro" 1920, "The Three Musketeers" 1921), Greta Garbo ("The Temptress" 1926 and "The Mysterious Lady" 1928) and Norma Talmadge ("Camille" 1927) during the 1920s, but was best known for the epic spectacle "Ben Hur" (1926). Niblo's career declined rather abruptly with the introduction of sound and he later returned to acting in film and on the stage.