His ex-wife, actress-cum-newswoman Lisa Howard, who appeared in several of his 1950s films, committed suicide just two months before his death from cancer.
He was the adoptive stepfather of popular fantasy novelist Raymond E. Feist (b. 1945), best known for his "Riftwar Cycle".
American director, in Hollywood from 1928. From 1930-43 he worked at MGM's short subjects department turning out Pete Smith specialties among numerous other "featurettes". In 1953 he moved to Universal and then to RKO as a B-movie director. His best films from this period are The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), The Big Trees (1952) and Donovan's Brain (1953). He subsequently worked in television.