Dick L'Estrange

• Born: Dec 27, 1889 in Asheville, North Carolina
• Died: Nov 19, 1963 in Burbank, California
• Occupation: Actor, Director
• Active: '20s, '40s
• Major Genres: Western, Action
• Career Highlights: Killers of the Wild, Teenage, Thunder Riders
• First Major Screen Credit: Thunder Riders (1928)

Biography

A former bank clerk and vaudeville performer, Dick L'Estrange appeared in a top supporting role in The Squaw Man (1914), the first Western feature filmed entirely in Hollywood. Spending most of his silent career in Westerns and action melodramas, L'Estrange went behind the camera in the sound era, mainly as a production manager and assistant director. With Richard C. Kahn, he founded Elkay Productions to produce Buzzy Rides the Range (1940) and Buzzy and the Phantom Pinto (1941), both starring boy actor Buzz Henry, and Killers of the Wild featuring his young daughter Jill. L'Estrange directed the 1943 exploitation melodrama Teen Age under his real name of Gunther von Strench and functioned as production supervisor of the 1954 television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide