Lewis D. Collins

Baltimore-born Lewis D. Collins got his start in show business as a stage and theater director. He moved to Hollywood in the mid-1920s, securing work as a writer and director of two-reelers. Collins was one of the more prolific American directors, up there with Sam Newfield, Lew Landers and William Beaudine, and was more like Newfield in that he churned out dozens of westerns--even helming some of John Wayne's earlier efforts--in a career that lasted almost 30 years. Collins did everything from two-reelers to action pictures to westerns to comedies, and in the 1940s tried his hand at serials, turning out a fair number of them for Universal. He had the distinction of making what is generally considered to be the very last of the series B westerns, Two Guns and a Badge (1954), for Allied Artists. He died shortly thereafter.