West was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1886 and attended De La Salle College there.

West's first important motion picture was The Alien based on George Beban's play The Sign of the Rose.

During his ten-year career as a director, he worked with some of the biggest movie stars of the 1910s, including Bessie Barriscale, Charles Ray, William Desmond, Dorothy Dalton and Louise Glaum.

Many of the lighting effects that became common in the 1920s were originated, according to the Los Angeles Times, in West's "ever-active and inventive mind.

"[1] In 1917, West was also credited with developing a new standard of double exposure photography while directing in The Snarl, a motion picture in which Bessie Barriscale played two parts—sisters competing for the same man.