- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrederick Lawrence Guiol
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Fred Guiol was born on February 17, 1898 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Giant (1956), A Place in the Sun (1951) and Shane (1953). He was married to Ethel Hall. He died on May 23, 1964 in Bishop, California, USA.
- SpouseEthel Hall(January 25, 1922 - June 27, 1960) (her death, 1 child)
- Began his film career as a prop boy for D.W. Griffith and moved on to photograph and direct at the Hal Roach studios, where he met another upcoming cameraman/director, George Stevens; both men worked on many of the best Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy silent shorts. When Stevens moved on to RKO in the sound era, Guiol went with him. Unfortunately, many of the "B" films Guiol directed there did not make money. Stevens, however, never forgot him, hiring him as a screenwriter on Gunga Din (1939), associate producer on Penny Serenade (1941) and The More the Merrier (1943), producer of The Talk of the Town (1942) and associate director on A Place in the Sun (1951) and Shane (1953). In 1956 Guiol shared an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay on Stevens' Giant (1956).
- The Fred Guiol Script Collection is housed in the Paulina June and George Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton. It contains over 111 titles written, produced, directed or worked on during his 35-year Hollywood career from the 1920s to the 1960s. Donated on November 6, 1970, by Guiol's daughter Mrs. Peggy Davis.
- He's credited with putting Oliver Hardy into the film Duck Soup (1927) instead of Hal Roach stock actor Syd Crossley, thus beginning Stan Laurel's and Hardy's appearances together.
- Daughter: Margaret Peggy Jean Guiol (1922-1988).
- Brother of actress Clara Guiol.
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