Career
Kirkwood debuted on screen in 1909 and was soon playing leads for Doctorate.W. Griffith. He started directing in 1912, and became a favorite of Mary Pickford. He was George Melford"s original choice for the starring role of Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan in The Sheik, which was later famously passed to Rudolph Valentino.
His directing career fizzled in 1920, but he continued acting well into the 1950s.
His film career would span more than two hundred films over nearly a half century. Following his death, he was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.