John F. Gavin (9 February 1874 – 6 January 1938) was a pioneer Australian film actor and director, one of the early filmmakers of the 1910s.

Film historians Graham Shirley and Brian Adams have written; "although Gavin was prolific his later surviving work shows that his entrepreneurial talent outweighed any he might have had as director.

He stayed with them for a number of seasons, then travelled to the USA where he worked with Barnum and Bailey's Circus, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

[6] Gavin returned to Australia and organised his own Wild West Show which was successful at the Melbourne Cyclorama, although he experienced a number of legal troubles.

[14] A newspaper profile attributed the success of Gavin's bushranging films to two main factors: the quality of horsemanship in them, and the fact they were normally shot on the real locations where the events occurred.

[5] Another writer stated in 1911 that "The pictures already turned out by Mr. Gavin demonstrates that in bio graphic art Australian producers are in no way behind their European and American brothers.

[22]When bushranging films were banned in 1912 he turned to dramatising other true characters, such as Edith Cavell and Charles Fryatt.

[23] In January 1917 he took out a lease on a studio at North Sydney and announced plans for make four feature films over a year, starting with The Murder of Captain Fryatt.

[27] Making movies in Australia was becoming increasingly difficult for him so Gavin moved to Hollywood, where he lived for eight years in all, appearing in what he claimed were over 300 films[28] and becoming a friend of Lon Chaney[29] Rudolph Valentino and Stan Laurel.

[30] He returned to Australia in February 1922 to make several outback films,[31] including a serial based on Ned Kelly, and set up a company in Brisbane,[32][33] but faced censorship problems and could not raise the capital.

[34] He gave evidence at the 1928 Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia arguing in favour of a quota for Australian films.