Émile Chautard (7 September 1864 – 24 April 1934) was a French-American film director, actor, and screenwriter, most active in the silent era.
After a significant career beginning as a stage actor at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe and moving up to the head of film production at Éclair Films' Paris studio in 1913,[1] Chautard emigrated to the United States in January 1915, sailing on the S/S Rochambeau, from Le Havre to New York.
From 1915 to about 1918, Chautard worked for the World Film Company based in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
[2] In 1919 Chautard hired von Sternberg as his assistant director for The Mystery of the Yellow Room, for his own short-lived production company.
He received some high-profile assignments, for instance a Colleen Moore vehicle and two features for Derelys Perdue, but he was a generation older than other directors in Hollywood's French colony.