Biography

Gregory La Cava

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A former cartoonist, Gregory La Cava entered films during WWI as an animator for Walter Lantz on such animated films as "The Katzenjammer Kids" series. Hired by the Hearst Corp. as the editor-in-chief for its International Comic Films division, La Cava switched to live-action films in the 1920s and began directing two-reel shorts. Graduating to features, La Cava gained a reputation as a surefooted comedy director, responsible for such classics as My Man Godfrey (1936) and She Married Her Boss (1935). La Cava was equally proficient in other genres as well, turning out the dramatic Stage Door (1937) and the bizarre political fantasy Gabriel Over the White House (1933). He is also supposed to have directed some scenes in several of the films of his close friend W.C. Fields when Fields couldn't get along with the directors assigned to him, although there is no official record of this ever happening.
- IMDb mini biography by: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Directed 8 actors to Oscar nominations: Frank Morgan (Best Actor, The Affairs of Cellini (1934)), Claudette Colbert (Best Actress, Private Worlds (1935)), William Powell (Best Actor, My Man Godfrey (1936)), Carole Lombard (Best Actress, My Man Godfrey (1936)), Mischa Auer (Best Supporting Actor, My Man Godfrey (1936)), Alice Brady (Best Supporting Actress, My Man Godfrey (1936)), Andrea Leeds (Best Supporting Actress, Stage Door (1937)), and Marjorie Rambeau (Best Supporting Actress, Primrose Path (1940)).
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6906 Hollywood Blvd.
He has directed two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: So's Your Old Man (1926) and My Man Godfrey (1936).
Was a good friend and drinking buddy of W.C. Fields. La Cava's alcoholism ruined his career in the 1940s and contributed to his death just shy of his 60th birthday.
La Cava is reported to have believed that a script exists only to be ignored.