Thornton Freeland

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Thornton Freeland (February 10, 1898 – May 22, 1987) was an American film director who directed 26 British and American films in a career that lasted from 1924 to 1949. He was born in Hope, North Dakota in 1898 and originally worked as an assistant director during the silent era. In 1929 he directed his first film, the comedy Three Live Ghosts. He enjoyed an early success with the Eddie Cantor Technicolor musical Whoopie! (1930) and much of his subsequent work was in musicals and comedies.

In 1933, he directed Flying Down to Rio which launched the screen partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers although it had originally been designed as a starring vehicle for the Mexican actress Dolores del Río. The following year Freeland made a film version of the long-running Broadway revue George White's Scandals.