James Whale

James Whale was an English film director who became one of Hollywood's most accomplished artists during the early sound era and one of the few openly gay men to build and sustain a major career in the studio system of that time. Born in Dudley, Worcestershire in 1889, he made his name directing the antiwar play Journey's End on the London stage before being brought to Hollywood, where he directed Frankenstein (1931) — one of the most influential horror films ever made — followed by The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), widely regarded as his masterpiece and a film whose flamboyance and sympathy for the monster's outsider suffering has long been interpreted as an expression of his gay identity. He also directed Show Boat (1936). Whale was open about his homosexuality throughout his Hollywood career and lived for two decades in a relationship with producer David Lewis. His final years were dramatised in Gods and Monsters (1998), directed by Bill Condon, which won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He died by suicide in 1957.