Benjamin F. Wilson

A sadly neglected American filmmaker, the pompously named Benjamin Franklin Wilson directed, produced, wrote and starred in innumerable low-budget serials and westerns, usually opposite blond Neva Gerber whom many mistakenly took for his wife. (Gerber, to the contrary, was at one point engaged to ill-fated director William Desmond Taylor.) The team enjoyed quite a following in the second decade of American silent films, but their popularity declined in the 1920s with the advent of younger, more athletic serial teams (especially the Allene Ray-Walter Miller combo). During his last decade in films, Wilson either sold his product outright to poverty-row company FBO or distributed his little action thrillers on a states rights basis. He wound up his career supporting Buck Jones in Shadow Ranch (1930). Wilson's death was attributed to a heart ailment.