Frank Smithson

Frank Smithson (11 February 1861 – 15 January 1949, New York City) was an Irish born American actor and theatre and film director. He began his career as a leading comic actor in Britain in the late 1880s and 1890s. He immigrated to the United States in 1896; making his Broadway debut in December of that year both directing and starring as Major Fossdyke in the Edwardian musical comedy The Girl from Paris. He directed 250 productions for the American stage during his lengthy career, many of them for Broadway, and was also active as a film director for Edison Studios and Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios.