Career
He had his own talent agency called the William Meiklejohn Agency that he sold to Master of Computer Applications in May 1939. At the time of the sale, his agency had over 100 actors and writers like Hattie McDaniel and Dorothy Parker. He was famous for his self-avowed “seventh sense” to discover and promote stars such as Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, and in 1937 Ronald Reagan who was then a sportscaster in Des Moines, Iowa.
Meiklejohn began his career in 1921 in his native Los Angeles as a booking agent for 80 different vaudeville acts.
In 1939 he sold his agency to the Music Corporation of America (Master of Computer Applications) as it opened in Hollywood and joined them as vice-president in charge of setting up their motion picture division. In 1940, he was loaned to Paramount for two weeks and ended up staying for 20 years as head of talent and casting, and it was at Paramount that he developed his reputation for finding talent.
Meiklejohn died, aged 78, on April 26, 1981 in Burbank, California from undisclosed causes. Hollywood Walk of Fame
Foreign contributions to the motion picture industry he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1777 Vine Street.
Jean ran the Meiklejohn and Dunn Theatrical agency which was located in the Majestic Theatre building in Hollywood, along with another brother Matthew.
Campbell was manager of Grauman"s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood which held the first Hollywood premiere Robin Hood in 1922 the last one to be held at the Egyptian was Funny Girl in 1968.