Phillips Smalley

Who was Phillips Smalley?

Wendell Phillips Smalley was an American silent film director and actor.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Smalley began his career in vaudeville and acted in more than 200 films between 1910 until his death in 1939. He began directing in 1911 and they made more than 300 films between then and 1921.

Smalley was married to actress, writer, director, and producer Lois Weber from April 29, 1904 to 1922. They met in 1904 when Weber was acting in a theater where Smalley was stage manager. In 1908 Smalley and Weber began working for the U.S. division of Gaumont Film Company, where Smalley was an actor, and later a director. He is sometimes listed as a co-director with Lois Weber, and the extent of his contribution to her work is unresolved.

Phillips Smalley died in 1939 and is interred next to his second wife Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.