He transferred his talents from the stage to motion pictures, and directed a film for which Helen Hayes received the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Selwyn flourished in the Broadway theater as an actor, playwright, director, and producer from 1899 to 1942.

In April 1912 Selwyn and his wife, playwright Margaret Mayo, held tickets to New York on the RMS Titanic but did not make the trip as he had a prior engagement to hear the reading of a new play in Paris.

They had had plans to accompany Broadway producer Henry B. Harris and his wife Renee with whom they had been touring Europe and Algiers.

[3] His second wife was actress Ruth Selwyn, a sister of director Fred M. Wilcox and sister-in-law of Nicholas Schenck.