New York-born Jacques Jaccard got an early start in the film business, appearing on-screen as an actor as early as 1913. While continuing his acting career, he also performed behind-the-scenes duties such as assistant director, but he found his niche as a writer and eventually began directing also. He specialized in serials, westerns and action films, often working at Universal Pictures. However, starting around the mid-'20s he began working for lower-rent studios like Goodwill Pictures, Syndicate Pictures and Arrow Pictures and then for cheapjack producers like Ben F. Wilson. When the sound era came around Jaccard, like many silent-era directors, didn't adjust well to the new technologies and procedures, and his sound career pretty much stayed mired in the cheap independent states-rights market. At one point he apparently was so desperate for work that he took a job with legendary fly-by-night producer Robert J. Horner. He directed his last film in 1936, a cheapie western, yet worked as a screenwriter and dialogue director until he retired in 1944.
