director at MGM At this point, as the talkie revolution transformed Hollywood, Waters, now an MGM contractee, returned to his former profession as assistant director, an industry job title which, during a brief period covering five Academy Award cycles (1932–33 to 1937), became eligible for an Oscar. On March 16, 1934, at the first Awards ceremony featuring the new category, John Waters was among eighteen nominees who were singled out for the totality of their achievement at the studio which employed them, rather than for a single feature. Each studio had two or three nominees, with Charles Dorian and Orville O. Dull rounding out, along with Waters, the MGM contingent. Ultimately, there were seven winners that year, one of them Dorian. The following year, after considerable streamlining, the nominations were pared down to three and categorized according to each nominee's work on a specific film. Only John Waters, among the previous year's eighteen nominees, was renominated, as his contribution to Wallace Beery's portrayal of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa won against two Claudette Colbert–Warren William titles represented by assistant directors Scott Beal (Imitation of Life) and Cullen Tate (Cleopatra). Although known in the industry, Waters, along with other studio-employed assistant directors and second unit directors, did not have his name listed in the credits of Viva Villa! as well a great majority of the other titles for which he fulfilled those functions. Other than a 1935 one-reel Pete Smith Specialty, Donkey Baseball, his sole directorial assignment in the sound era was The Mighty McGurk, MGM's 1946 vehicle for his old Viva Villa! compatriot, Wallace Beery. Twelve years later, after working as second unit director on two big-budget 1958 releases, Warner's The Deep Six and the independently produced The Big Country, John Waters was admitted as a patient to the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, where he died seven years later at the age of 71. The New York Times''' May 8, 1965 obituary, under the heading "John S. Waters", described him as "a pioneer motion picture director" who "was 70 years old", and stated that "his widow, Frances, survives". Filmography Silent films Down Home (1920) The Enchanted Hill (1926) Born to the West (1926) Forlorn River (1926) Man of the Forest (1926) The Mysterious Rider (1927) Drums of the Desert (1927) The Vanishing Pioneer (1928) Arizona Bound (1927) Nevada (1927) Two