Career
One of the silent screen"s 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 New York He made his acting debut at 19 in the theatrical show "Romeo and Juliet", performing 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.
A year later, he became part of Kalem Studios, for which he made numerous movies. As an actor, one of Vignola"s most notable film roles was as Judas Iscariot in, one of the most successful films of the period.
As a director, he directed 87 films, some of which have been lost. Some examples are, sometimes cited as the first "vamp" movie, and, where Rudolph Valentino did an uncredited cameo.
Other films include the big-budget epic,, with the uncredited appearance of the then unknown Clark Gable,, which received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival, and, the last film of Colleen Moore.
He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as and, both lost films. Vignola died in Hollywood, California in 1953 and was buried in Saint Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New New York