Biography

Was an avid baseball fan, an affinity he shared with Buster Keaton. Baseball was a featured theme in several of his early comedy performances and, on occasion, during his later directing career.

Credited with discovering Lucille Ball and actually did a cameo appearance or two on I Love Lucy (1951). He was also an executive with her production company, Desilu Productions. The last show he directed before he died a few months later was an episode of "I Love Lucy." She never forgot the man who was so instrumental in giving her a break in the movies, and after he died she took his widow, Ebba Havez, into her home and cared for her until she, too, passed away.

Started as a child actor in his home town of Galveston, TX, as part of a family vaudeville acrobatic and comedy act, the Sedgwick Comedy Company, with his parents and two twin sisters. Graduated from St. Mary's University, Galveston. First acted on screen in 1915, primarily in short comedies for Imp and Vogue. From 1920-22 he worked as a serial and western director for Fox, then Universal (1922-26) and MGM (1926-32). He was best known for directing Buster Keaton's last two silent comedies, The Cameraman (1928) and Spite Marriage (1929). He continued to turn out comedies during the 1930s and 1940s, with gradually diminishing results. Near the end of his career he worked as a gag writer for Red Skelton.

Son of stage players Edward Sedgwick and Josephone Walker, with whom he and his sisters performed as "The Five Sedgwicks."

Is portrayed by Ray Woolf in Lucy (2003)