Early Australian film-maker John Paterson McGowan was from a South Australian railroad family. A horseman, he served in the Second Boer War as a dispatch rider.
McGowan first made his way to the US as a participant in a Boer War exhibit in the St Louis World's Fair (also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in 1904. From here, he moved into films by way of theatre: his skills on horseback also enabled him to undertake stuntwork.
He arrived in California in 1913 and wrote, directed, filmed, acted in, and edited silent films, including many involving railways and trains, until the coming of sound and the 1930s Depression. McGowan did make the transition to sound, but from the late 1930s was more engaged in his work as executive secretary of the Screen Directors Guild, from which position he fought for recognition of the director within the studio system.
He was executive secretary of the Screen Directors Guild in the USA until his death, and remains the only Australian to have been made a life member of the Screen Directors Guild.
McGowan has over 20 credits as a script-writer, over 230 credits as an actor, and over 240 credits as a director. Most of his credits are westerns, but there are a number of crime films and thrillers, especially among his earlier works.
