Began his film career as a prop boy for
D.W. Griffith and moved on to photograph
and direct at the
Hal Roach studios, where he met another upcoming
cameraman/director,
George Stevens; both men worked on many of the best
Stan Laurel and
Oliver Hardy silent shorts. When Stevens moved on to RKO in the
sound era, Guiol went with him. Unfortunately, many of the "B" films Guiol
directed there did not make money. Stevens, however, never forgot him,
hiring him as a screenwriter on
Aufstand in Sidi Hakim (1939), associate producer on
Akkorde der Liebe (1941) and
Jeder hilft sich wie er kann (1943), producer of
Zeuge der Anklage (1942) and associate director on
Ein Platz an der Sonne (1951) and
Mein großer Freund Shane (1953). In 1956 Guiol shared an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay on Stevens'
Giganten (1956).
