William Desmond Taylor

Though a competent actor who starred in "Captain Alvarez" (1914) before turning to direct over 80 silent films, William Desmond Taylor was remembered for his unsolved murder in 1922 that triggered sensationalized newspaper reporting at a time when early Hollywood was rocked by numerous scandals. Prior to being shot in the back by an unknown assailant, Taylor rose to prominence as the director of several Mary Pickford vehicles, including "How Could You, Jean?" (1918), while also guiding the career of a young actress named Mary Miles Minter, who later became uneasily tangled in his murder; Taylor had previously directed Minter in the silent adaptation of "Anne of Green Gables" (1919). Other notable films for the director were the adaptation of Mark Twain's most popular works, "Tom Sawyer" (1917) and "Huckleberry Finn" (1920), and what turned out to be his final picture, "The Green Temptation" (1922). Most, if not all, of Taylor's films were considered lost, while his legacy - despite his prolific output - lay solely in the scandal-plagued Hollywood of the 1920s.