King Vidor

A clause in Vidor's contract entitled him to a share of the profits from the 1925 film The Big Parade. MGM executives persuaded Vidor to waive that clause in return for a small sum by downplaying the film's potential. Upon its release, The Big Parade became the highest grossing film in MGM history up to that time.

Vidor spent his final years residing at his ranch near Paso Robles, CA.

Vidor detested wearing pajamas.

Vidor was cremated after his death and his ashes were given to his family members.

Vidor stood 5 feet, 11 inches tall in his prime.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association presented Vidor with a Career Achievement Award in 1977.

Vidor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6741 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 1953, Vidor wrote an autobiography entitled A Tree is a Tree.

Vidor was head of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.

In 1978, Vidor accepted the Academy Award for Best Director for Woody Allen who was absent from the ceremony.

Vidor was president of the Screen Director's Guild from 1936 to 1938.

In his later years, Vidor taught filmmaking at both USC and UCLA.

Vidor began his cinematic career as a movie projectionist at a Galveston, TX movie theatre.

Vidor was a survivior of the Galveston hurricane of 1900 which was the worst in United States history.

The town of Vidor, TX was named for Vidor's father.

Vidor's father was a lumber merchant.

Vidor's parents were Charles Shelton and Katie Lee Vidor.

Not all of Vidor's films were well-received. 1946's Duel in the Sun was considered a major clunker in its day.

Vidor cast actress wife Eleanor Boardman as the female lead in his 1928 masterpiece The Crowd.

Vidor's 1934 film, Our Daily Bread was dismissed as Communist propaganda in some quarters.

Vidor was married to Elizabeth Hill from 1932 until her death in 1978 although the couple was estranged for the last 10 year's of Vidor's life.

Vidor was married to actress Eleanor Boardman from 1926 to 1931. They had two daughters: Antonia and Belinda.

Vidor was married to Florence Arto from 1917 to 1924. They had a daughter named Suzanne.

The final film which Vidor directed was a documentary entitled The Metaphor released in 1980.

Vidor is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the longest career as a film director at 67 years.

Author Sidney Kirkpatrick claimed in 1986 that Vidor solved the 1922 murder of William Desmond Taylor but kept his conclusions private in order to protect individuals still alive at the time.

In 1967, Vidor did research into the unsolved 1922 murder of fellow silent director William Desmond Taylor because he intended to make a film about the case.

Vidor directed the black and white sequences of The Wizard of Oz when director Victor Fleming was pulled from the film and assigned to Gone With the Wind.

Vidor received an honorary Academy Award in 1979.

Vidor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director five times but never won in direct competition.

Vidor's two masterpieces are considered to be the silent films The Big Parade and The Crowd.

The first feature film Vidor directed was The Turn of the Road released in 1919.

The first film Vidor ever directed was a short piece entitled Hurricane in Galveston in 1913.