Edwin Carewe

Edwin Carewe, born Jay John Fox on March 3, 1883, in Gainesville, Texas, was a Native American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who worked across stage and screen during the early twentieth century. He and his brothers Wallace Ware Fox and Franklin Finis Fox were all citizens of the Chickasaw Nation and original enrollees on the 1907 Chickasaw Dawes Rolls. His parents were Franklin Marion Fox and Sallie J. Priddy Fox.

Carewe adopted his professional name from two sources: the first name Edwin, taken from stage actor Edwin Booth, and the surname Carewe, drawn from a character he portrayed during his theatrical work. Before relocating to New York City, he studied briefly at the Universities of Texas and Missouri and gained experience with regional theatrical companies. His Broadway career included an appearance in 1907 in O'Neill of Derry. By 1910 he had settled in New York, where he joined the Dearborn Stock Company.

His stage work preceded his entry into film, beginning with Lubin Studios before he went on to direct pictures for MGM, First National, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and United Artists. Over the course of his career he directed 58 films. Among the most celebrated was his 1928 adaptation of Ramona, starring Dolores del Río and Warner Baxter, a film later rediscovered and restored by the Library of Congress and given a world premiere screening at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2014. The following year he directed Evangeline, again featuring del Río and written by his brother Finis Fox, which was based on the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and received recognition for its lighting and cinematography. Through his work, Carewe contributed to the early screen careers of performers including Dolores del Río, Warner Baxter, Francis X. Bushman, and Gary Cooper.

Though his output during the silent era earned both critical and commercial success, Carewe struggled to adapt to sound filmmaking. He turned to sound remakes of earlier works and later to low-budget and religious productions. His final feature, Are We Civilized?, was released in 1934.

Carewe was married three times, twice to actress Mary Akin. His first marriage, to Mary Jane Croft on January 9, 1909, in Toronto, Ontario, produced two daughters, Violette, who later worked as an actress under the name Rita Carewe, and Mary Jane. His first marriage to Mary Akin resulted in two children, Sally Ann and William, and a subsequent marriage to Akin produced a third child, Carol Lee. Carewe died of a heart ailment in his Hollywood apartment and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.