Lambert Harwood Hillyer was born July 8, 1893, in
Tyner, Indiana (his 1946 résumé amended this to South Bend, Indiana). His mother was character actress
Lydia Knott. A graduate of
Drake College, he worked as a newspaper reporter and short-story writer, then as an actor in
vaudeville and stock theater. During World War I he began working in motion pictures with the
Mutual company. He began his career as a director with
Paramount-Artcraft, then
First National,
Goldwyn, and
Fox. He became a specialist in westerns, working on many silent features starring
William S. Hart,
Buck Jones,
Tom Mix, and others. Hillyer expanded into romantic melodramas and crime films in the 1920s. In 1936 he directed two chillers for
Universal, the science-fiction film
The Invisible Ray and the cult horror film ''
Dracula's Daughter''. He directed many features for
Columbia Pictures in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some were major productions like
The Defense Rests (1935) with
Jack Holt and
Jean Arthur, but most were low-budget action features. In 1940 he was assigned to Columbia's
Charles Starrett westerns, including
The Durango Kid (1940), which later inspired a popular series. When Starrett left the studio temporarily, Hillyer was reassigned to the
Bill Elliott series, which he directed through 1942. One of Hillyer's most famous credits is the
Batman serial (1943), which was memorable enough to be re-released in 1954, 1962, and 1965. The 1965 revival inspired the very successful
Batman TV series. After his tenure with Columbia ended in 1943, Hillyer moved to
RKO Radio Pictures briefly, where he directed a
Tim Holt western and a pair of two-reel comedies with
Leon Errol. Hillyer then began a six-year association with
Monogram Pictures, first with the
Sam Katzman crime story
Smart Guy and then a series with the studio's newest cowboy star
Johnny Mack Brown. Hillyer also directed Monogram's other western leads
Jimmy Wakely and
Whip Wilson. ==Television==