Otis Edgar Garrett"California, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGFM-XTFD : Fri Apr 04 01:15:35 UTC 2025), Entry for Otis Edgar Garrett and H Ellen O Garrett, 16 Oct 1940. (March 29, 1905 – May 24, 1941) was an American film editor, screenwriter and film director,Shelley p.150 perhaps best remembered for being the most frequently employed of Universal's Crime Club directors.Weaver, Tom; Brunas, Michael, Brunas, John (2007). Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931 1946. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 355. . "In 1937, Universal struck a deal with the Crime Club, publishers of pulpy whodunits by such prolific writers as Jonathan Latimer. The studio was granted the right to select four of the 52 annually published novels for adaptation. Producer Irving Starr was put in charge of this unit, while former film cutter Otis Garrett frequently handled the directing chores." He was the brother of silent film actress Doris May and the brother-in-law of actor/producer Wallace MacDonald.

Early life and career Born in Tacoma, Washington on March 29, 1905,"California, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGFM-XTFD : Fri Apr 04 01:15:35 UTC 2025), Entry for Otis Edgar Garrett and H Ellen O Garrett, 16 Oct 1940. Garrett was the son of Helen Gregory Ellen (née Otis) and George Edgar Garrett. Raised in Tacoma, San Diego, and Los Angeles,"United States, Census, 1920", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHQ1-4PR : Sun Jan 19 22:36:52 UTC 2025), Entry for Gregory E Garrett and Helen G Garrett, 1920. he attended the San Diego School of Expression, where his occasional cast-mates included both his sister Helen—aka Doris May—and future fellow Universal helmer Arthur Lubin.

Personal life and death Garrett was married twice, both marriages ending in divorce. In the spring of 1924, he married Elizabeth Kathryn Mertes, with whom, in 1927, he had a daughter, Patricia."California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGL4-27HK : Sun Mar 10 04:32:24 UTC 2024), Entry for Patricia Garrett and Otis Edgar Garrett, 21 October 1927. By 1930, the relationship had deteriorated to such an extent that a judge was compelled to order both parties to stop "stealing" their then 3-year-old child from each other. By the spring of 1931, both parties had filed for divorce, each on grounds of mental cruelty. Garrett's sister, by then Mrs. Wallace MacDonald, testified on her brother's behalf, stating that, were he to be awarded custody, she would personally care for the child. By May 31, the judge, having long been urging both sides to reconcile for the sake of the child, finally acknowledged the futility of such hopes and granted the divorce to Mrs. Garrett, but with the stipulation that custody of their child be shared.

On December 20, 1935, Garrett married actress Earlene Marie Heath."California, County Marriages, 1849-1957", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8JL-X4C : Sun Mar 10 20:35:28 UTC 2024), Entry for Otis E Gerrett and Earlene Marie Heath, 20 December 1935. Aside from their divorce, reconciliation, second divorce, and some much-publicized alimony litigation, this marriage produced two additional children, a son, Anthony Otis, and a daughter, Judith Lynn.

On May 24, 1941, Garrett died, aged 36, at Doctors and Students Hospital in Glendale, California, survived by his mother, his three children, and his sister. An autopsy revealed his cause of death to be "accidental bromide poisoning that followed a dental operation".

The Associated Press, in its brief but widely disseminated obituary, reported that, at the times of his death, Garrett was "to have been married next August to Miss Susan Cleary of North Hollywood".

Garrett's remains are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Filmography Director The Last Express (1938) Danger on the Air (1938) The Black Doll (1938) Personal Secretary (1938) The Lady in the Morgue (1938) Exile Express (1939) Mystery of the White Room (1939) The Witness Vanishes (1939) Sandy Gets Her Man (1940) Margie (1940) World Premiere (1941)

Editor The Guilty Generation (1931) Behind the Mask (1932) The Crusader (1932) The Unwritten Law (1932) The Mystic Hour (1933) The Vampire Bat (1933) Gigolettes of Paris (1933) The World Gone Mad (1933) Curtain at Eight (1933) The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) What Price Decency (1933) Sing Sinner Sing (1933) Unknown Blonde (1934) Breezing Home (1937) Night Key (1937) The Westland Case (1937)

Screenwriter Age of Indiscretion (1935) O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) Woman Wanted (1935) Meet the Chump (1941)

Notes

References

Bibliography Shelley, Peter. Frances Farmer: The Life and Films of a Troubled Star. McFarland, 2014.

External links