Raoul Walsh's film career spanned more than half a century, encompassing acting, writing scenarios and directing. He began as an actor in 1909 in westerns made by the Pathe brothers. He signed with D.W. Griffith in 1912, appearing as the young Pancho Villa in Christy Cabanne's "The Life of General Villa" (1912) and as John Wilkes Booth in "Birth of a Nation" (1915). "Villa" also marked Walsh's first directing experience; he shot the Mexican documentary sequence for the film, persuading Villa himself to re-stage the battle of Durango. From there, it was on to one- and two-reelers and then
