Jean Yarbrough

Jean Yarbrough (August 22, 1901 – August 2, 1975) was an American film director.

Jean Yarbrough
Born(1901-08-22)August 22, 1901
Marianna, Arkansas, U.S.
DiedAugust 2, 1975(1975-08-02) (aged 73)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm director

Biography

Jean Yarbrough was born in Marianna, Arkansas on August 22, 1901. He attended the University of the South located in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1922, Yarbrough entered the film business working in silent pictures, first as a prop-man and later rising through the ranks to become an assistant director. By 1936, he was a bona fide director, first doing comedy and musical shorts for RKO which was founded by Joseph P. Kennedy among others. His directorial debut for a feature-length film was Rebellious Daughters which was made by the low-budget studio, Progressive Pictures in 1938.

His greatest success came in the 1940s and 1950s, when he directed comedy teams like Abbott and Costello (five films: Here Come the Co-Eds, In Society, Jack and the Beanstalk, Lost in Alaska, and The Naughty Nineties), The Bowery Boys (five films: Angels in Disguise, Master Minds, Triple Trouble, Crashing Las Vegas, and Hot Shots) and horror/cult movies that are still fondly remembered to this day, such as The Devil Bat, King of the Zombies, She-Wolf of London, and House of Horrors.

Yarbrough found little difficulty in transitioning from the traditional B-movies which were on the decline, to the new medium of television. He directed many episodes for different TV series throughout the 1950s and 1960s which are widely considered to be the Golden Age of Television. In addition to directing, he had a two-year stint working as both producer and director of the very popular Abbott and Costello Show. He directed some episodes of The Silent Service and Navy Log, also during the 1950s, which were military dramas based on true stories of the United States Navy.

He subsequently directed episodes of Walter Brennan's western series The Guns of Will Sonnett. His last theatrical film was 1967's Hillbillys in a Haunted House, a mixture of comedy, horror and country music, starring Basil Rathbone and Lon Chaney, Jr.

Partial filmography

References
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