Carl Lee Harbaugh (1886-1960) was an actor, writer and director who, while working on Broadway, appeared in his first film, for a New York company, in 1912. Four years later he was writing and directing pictures for the Fox Film Corporation. In 1917, Harbaugh adapted and directed an early screen version of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850).
Harbaugh never directed anything of great note, and his best-remembered film in that capacity is Elysia (Valley of the Nude) (1933), an early example of one of those earnest, ‘educational’ films that allowed plentiful nudity.
In 1927, Harbaugh co-wrote the story for Buster Keaton’s College, in collaboration with Brian Foy, who also produced Elysia. Harbaugh also acted in College.
Harbaugh was a featured player in silent films, but was mostly uncredited in the sound era. But he made appearances in some outstanding pictures, especially for Warner Bros, and including The Roaring Twenties (1939), High Sierra (1941), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), White Heat (1949) and The Far Country (1954).
Carl Harbaugh was in just one MGM musical, The Devil’s Brother.
