From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Robert G Vignola born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola August 5 1882 October 25 1953 was an Italianborn American actor screenwriter and film director in American cinema One of the silent screens most prolific directors he made a handful of sound films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era Born at Trivigno in the province of Potenza Vignola left Italy with his family at the age of 3 and was raised in upstate New York He made his acting debut at 19 performing in Romeo and Juliet with Eleanor Robson Belmont and Kyrle Bellew He began his film career as an actor in 1906 with the short film The Black Hand directed by Wallace McCutcheon and produced by Biograph Company generally considered the film that launched the mafia genre In 1907 he joined Kalem Studios for which he made numerous movies One of Vignolas most notable film roles was as Judas Iscariot in From the Manger to the Cross 1912 directed by Sidney Olcott one of the most successful films of the period Vignola directed 87 films most notably The Vampire 1913 sometimes cited as the first vamp movie and Seventeen 1916 where Rudolph Valentino did an uncredited cameo He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as Audrey 1916 and Double Crossed 1917 His biggest success was the bigbudget epic When Knighthood Was in Flower 1922 starring Marion Davies which achieved critical and commercial acclaim Other films include Déclassée 1925 with the uncredited appearance of the then unknown Clark Gable Broken Dreams 1933 which received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival and The Scarlet Letter 1934 the last film of Colleen Moore Vignola died in Hollywood California in 1953 He lived in a mansion at Whitley Heights owned by William Randolph Hearst Hearsts mistress Marion Davies was allowed to stay without him at Vignolas mansion worried that she was having affairs and considering Vignola a trusted companion for her as he was homosexual He was buried in St Agnes Cemetery Menands New York