Phillips Smalley

Wendell Phillips Smalley (August 7, 1865 – May 2, 1939) was an American silent film director and actor. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the grandson of Wendell Phillips; he was the son of George Washburn Smalley, a war correspondent, and his wife Phoebe Garnaut, adopted by Phillips. He enrolled at Balliol College, Oxford in 1886.Smalley began his career in vaudeville and acted in more than 200 films between 1910 and his death in 1939. He began directing in 1911 and made more than 300 films by 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.After their divorce in 1922, he married Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin, and they remained together until his death.