Irish-born American film director best known for directing the last eleven of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Studios.

Neill began directing silent films in 1917 and directed 111 films, 55 of which were silent. Although most of Neill's films were low-budget B-movies, he was known for directing films with precisely lit scenes with carefully layered shadows that would become the film noir style of the late 1940s. In fact, his last film, The Black Angel (1946), is considered film noir.