Biography
A busy actor/director with the pioneering Vitagraph company from at least 1908, William Humphrey played Napoleon Bonaparte to
Julia Arthur's Josephine in Napoleon and the Empress Josephine (1909) and later helmed one-reelers featuring the company's famous canine star Jean. Humphrey's last directorial assignment was the 1922 mystery drama
Foolish Monte Carlo, which he also wrote. As a character actor, the white-haired Humphrey portrayed Mr. Sedley in
Vanity Fair (1923), was Stephen A. Douglass in
Abraham Lincoln (1924), and played the defense attorney in
Lon Chaney's
The Unholy Three (1925). He repeated his impersonation of Napoleon three times in the sound era: in
Devil May Care (1929),
Manhattan Parade (1933), and Are We Civilized? (1934); he also played Dr. Haupt in the minor horror classic
The Vampire Bat (1933). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide