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After studying law at U.S.C., Roy Rowland came to Hollywood, where he secured a job as a script clerk at MGM. While still in his early twenties, Rowland joined the directorial staff of the MGM's short subjects unit. He turned out entries in such one- and two-reel series as The Pete Smith Specialties and Crime Does Not Pay, and also worked harmoniously with humorist Robert Benchley, directing virtually all of Benchley's short comedies for MGM. Promoted to feature films in 1943, Rowland helmed such worthwhile endeavors as Lost Angel (1944) and Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945). His most celebrated effort of the 1950s (though decidedly not the most profitable) was the elaborate Dr. Seuss-scripted musical fantasy The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (Columbia, 1953). During the 1960s, Rowland directed the British Mickey Spillane adaptation The Girl Hunters (1964), then produced and directed a handful of European spaghetti Westerns. Married to Laura Cummings, the niece of Louis B. Mayer and sister of MGM producer/director Jack Cummings, Roy Rowland was the father of actor Steve Rowland.