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Lew Landers

American film and television director (1901–1962)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ3237273
Source-derived summary

Louis Friedlander (January 2, 1901 – December 16, 1962), known by the stage name Lew Landers, was an American film and television director. He was active from the silent era to the early 1960's, directing over 170 productions.

Biography

Born Louis Friedlander in New York City in 1901, Landers began his movie career as an actor. In 1914, he appeared in two features: D.W. Griffith's drama The Escape and the comedy short Admission – Two Pins, under his birth name. He became an assistant director at Universal Pictures in 1922. He began making films in the 1930s, one of his early ones being the Boris Karloff / Bela Lugosi thriller The Raven (1935).

After directing a few more features, he changed his name to Lew Landers and directed more than 100 films in a variety of genres, including Westerns, comedies, and horror movies. He worked for every major film studio—and many minor ones—during his career. Since 1943, he began to alternate his movie work with directing television series, including two episodes of Adventures of Superman and the campy Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.

Death

On December 16, 1962, Landers died of a heart attack in Palm Desert, California.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lew Landers” as american film and television director (1901–1962). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1901, 1962, 1960, 1914—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1901-01-02, 1901-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Landers, American and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american film and television director (1901–1962). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3237273. VIAF identifies the subject as 47024632. The Library of Congress control number is n87896477. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1962, 1960 and 1914.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lew Landers”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lew Landers primary sources, Lew Landers archive and Landers research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lew Landers”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Lew Landers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.