Bayard Veiller

Bayard Veiller was an American playwright, screenwriter, producer, and director, born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 2, 1869, and died in New York City on January 16, 1943. Before becoming known in the theater, he worked as a police reporter and later as a theatrical press agent, experiences that helped shape the sharp sense of crime and procedure found in much of his writing.

He is most closely associated with Within the Law, the 1912 stage success that became his signature work and was adapted for the screen more than once. Other notable plays include The Thirteenth Chair and The Trial of Mary Dugan, both of which also found audiences in film form. His career bridged stage and screen at a time when many dramatists were making the same transition, and he was credited on dozens of films between the 1910s and early 1940s.

Veiller was married to the actress Margaret Wycherly. Today he is remembered mainly for tightly built popular dramas that brought mystery, legal tension, and a reporter’s eye for detail to both Broadway and early American cinema.