's
Seventeen with actress Lillian Ross, who played the role of Jane in the Broadway production (1918) Stuart Walker was born March 4, 1888, in
Augusta, Kentucky, the son of Cliff Stuart Walker and Matilda Taliaferro Armstrong Walker. After attending public school in Cincinnati and graduating from the
University of Cincinnati, he went to work for
David Belasco and made his debut as an actor in 1909. He became a play reader for Belasco, and directed plays including ''
The Governor's Lady'' (1912). In 1914 Walker joined
Jessie Bonstelle as a director in Detroit and Buffalo. In 1915, Walker organized the Portmanteau Theatre, an independent
repertory theatre company. He produced seasons in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville and New York City. He staged the
first dramatization of
Booth Tarkington's bestselling novel
Seventeen, Walker's repertory company was active throughout the 1920s. Its credits include the first American performance of Alberto Casella's supernatural drama
Death Takes a Holiday, adapted by Walter Ferris, in 1929. In 1930, Walker became a screenwriter in Hollywood, and served as dialogue director on films including
Brothers and
The Last of the Lone Wolf. He directed his first feature film the following year, and in 1936 he became a producer for
Paramount Pictures. Walker died March 13, 1941, at his home in
Beverly Hills, California, following a heart attack. == Filmography ==