Roy William Neill is a producer and a director known mostly for his work with the Sherlock Holmes franchise. In 1943, he directed Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, the first pairing of two separate Universal Pictures franchises. In 1944, he directed The Pearl of Death which also starred Universal scream queen Evelyn Ankers. In 1980, director Joe Dante paid homage to several genre directors by naming characters in his werewolf film The Howling after them. The character of Bill Neill (played by Christopher Stone) was named after Roy William Neill.