Roland West
E446698
Roland West was an American film director of the silent and early sound era, best known for his atmospheric crime dramas and for his association with the 1932 murder scandal involving actress Thelma Todd.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Roland West canonical | 5 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4484392 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Roland West Context triple: [The Dove (1927 film), director, Roland West]
-
A.
Roland Williams
Roland Williams is a former NFL tight end best known for his role on the high-powered St. Louis Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" offense that won Super Bowl XXXIV.
-
B.
Roland Anderson
Roland Anderson was an American art director known for his work on numerous Hollywood films from the 1930s through the 1960s, earning multiple Academy Award nominations for his production design.
-
C.
Roland Young
Roland Young was a British-born character actor best known for his urbane, often bemused comic roles in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, including the "Topper" series.
-
D.
Roland Totheroh
Roland Totheroh was an American cinematographer best known for his long collaboration with Charlie Chaplin, shaping the visual style of many of Chaplin’s classic films.
-
E.
Arvin Brown
Arvin Brown is an American theatre and television director best known for his long tenure leading and shaping the artistic vision of New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Roland West Target entity description: Roland West was an American film director of the silent and early sound era, best known for his atmospheric crime dramas and for his association with the 1932 murder scandal involving actress Thelma Todd.
-
A.
Roland Williams
Roland Williams is a former NFL tight end best known for his role on the high-powered St. Louis Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" offense that won Super Bowl XXXIV.
-
B.
Roland Anderson
Roland Anderson was an American art director known for his work on numerous Hollywood films from the 1930s through the 1960s, earning multiple Academy Award nominations for his production design.
-
C.
Roland Young
Roland Young was a British-born character actor best known for his urbane, often bemused comic roles in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, including the "Topper" series.
-
D.
Roland Totheroh
Roland Totheroh was an American cinematographer best known for his long collaboration with Charlie Chaplin, shaping the visual style of many of Chaplin’s classic films.
-
E.
Arvin Brown
Arvin Brown is an American theatre and television director best known for his long tenure leading and shaping the artistic vision of New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
film director
ⓘ
film producer ⓘ human ⓘ screenwriter ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent | death of Thelma Todd ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | heart disease ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1885-02-20 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 1952-03-31 ⓘ |
| directed |
Alibi (1929 film)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Corsair (1931 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ The Bat (1926 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ The Bat Whispers NERFINISHED ⓘ The Dove (1927 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ The Monster (1925 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
crime film
ⓘ
drama film ⓘ mystery film ⓘ |
| hasFamilyName | West NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasGivenName | Roland NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influenced | later film noir visual style ⓘ |
| knownFor |
association with the Thelma Todd death case
ⓘ
atmospheric crime dramas ⓘ innovative use of sound in early talkies ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| nominatedFor |
Academy Award for Best Actor (via film Alibi)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Academy Award for Best Picture ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Alibi (1929 film)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Corsair (1931 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ The Bat (1926 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ The Bat Whispers NERFINISHED ⓘ The Dove (1927 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ The Monster (1925 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| occupation |
film director
ⓘ
film producer ⓘ screenwriter ⓘ |
| partner | Thelma Todd NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Cleveland, Ohio NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Hollywood, California NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| religion | Roman Catholicism ⓘ |
| residence | Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| spouse | Della M. West NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| workedIn |
early sound film era
ⓘ
silent film era ⓘ |
| yearsActive |
1910s
ⓘ
1920s ⓘ 1930s ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Roland West Description of subject: Roland West was an American film director of the silent and early sound era, best known for his atmospheric crime dramas and for his association with the 1932 murder scandal involving actress Thelma Todd.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Wayne Hays
subject surface form:
Wayne Hays