Who was King Vidor?

King Wallis Vidor (February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, humane, and sympathetic depiction of contemporary social issues. Considered an "auteur" director, Vidor approached multiple genres and allowed the subject matter to determine the style, often pressing the limits of film-making conventions.

His most outstanding and successful film in the silent era is "The Big Parade" (1925). Vidor's sound films of the 1940s and early 1950s arguably represent his richest output. Among his finest works are "Northwest Passage" (1940), "Comrade X" (1940), "An American Romance" (1944), and "Duel in the Sun" (1946). His dramatic depictions of the American western landscape endow nature with a sinister force where his characters struggle for survival and redemption.

Vidor was born into a well-to-do family in Galveston, Texas, the son of Kate (née Wallis) and Charles Shelton Vidor, a lumber importer and mill owner. His grandfather, Károly Charles Vidor, was a refugee of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, who settled in Galveston in the early 1850s. Vidor's mother, Kate Wallis, of Scotch-English descent, was a relative of the second wife of iconic frontiersman and politician Davy Crockett. The "King" in King Vidor is no sobriquet, but his given name in honor of his mother's favorite brother, King Wallis.