Thornton Freeland,On the stage since childhood, Thornton Freeland went to work for Vitagraph in 1918, rising in the ranks from assistant cameraman to director, and made his directorial debut, Three Live Ghosts (1929), just at the dawn of the sound era. A specialist in light romantic comedies and musicals, Freeland alternated between making films in the US and England in the 1930s and 1940s. He retired from the film business in 1949.