Film director, born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA. He left Maine for Hollywood in 1913 and worked as a stagehand and propman. He began directing in 1917, and was to turn out over 125 features, making his debut with a western, The Tornado. Over the years, he developed his own small acting company, which featured John Wayne, Ward Bond, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and many others. Adept at all genres, he frequently explored his Irish roots but achieved his greatest renown for poetic visions of the American West, depicting its rugged heroes, pioneering families, and sense of male camaraderie.
He won four best director Academy Awards for the films The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952), and two others for World War 2 documentaries. He received the first American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1973.