Walter Forde

Walter Forde (born Thomas Seymour Woolford, 21 April 1898 – 7 January 1984) was a British actor, screenwriter and director.^[1] Born in Lambeth, South London in 1898, he directed over fifty films between 1919 from the silent era through to 1949 in the sound era.^[2] He died in Los Angeles, California in 1984.

Forde was the son of the music hall comedian Tom Seymour. During the 1920s, he was a silent film comedian, acting in a series of shorts before shifting into directing feature films. Emerging as an established film director in the 1930s, he directed films for Gainsborough Pictures and Ealing Studios.

Forde worked several times with Michael Balcon who wrote "when he turned to directing films his sense of timing, especially in comedy, was impeccable. He made the changeover to sound films very easily, never forgetting that movies must move and consequently not falling into the common errors of leaning on dialogue or keeping the now heavily ‘blimped’ and somewhat cumbersome cameras in fixed positions."^[3]

• Walter Finds a Father, extant
• Walter Wants Work, extant in the Huntley Archives
• Walter's Day Out

• Walter The Sleuth 1926,

• Hunter, I.Q. & Porter, Laraine. British Comedy Cinema. Routledge, 2012.

• Walter Forde at IMDb
• Walter Forde at BFI Screenonline