Known For
Directing
Born
Apr 21, 1870
Died
Apr 30, 1941
Place of Birth
Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USA
Credits
192 titles
Edwin S. Porter
Biography
Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Influenced by both the "Brighton school" and the story films of Georges Méliès, Porter went on to make important shorts such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In them, he helped to develop the modern concept of continuity editing, paving the way for D.W. Griffith who would expand on Porter's discovery that the unit of film structure was the shot rather than the scene. Porter, in an attempt to resist the new industrial system born out of the popularity of nickelodeons, left Edison in 1909 to form his own production company which he eventually sold in 1912. Porter remains an enigmatic figure in motion picture history. Though his significance as director of The Great Train Robbery and other innovative early films is undeniable, he rarely repeated an innovation after he had used it successfully, never developed a consistent directorial style, and in later years never protested when others rediscovered his techniques and claimed them as their own. He was a modest, quiet, cautious man who felt uncomfortable working with the famous stars he directed starting in 1912. He has directed four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Life of an American Fireman (1903), The Great Train Robbery (1903), Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) and Tess of the Storm Country (1914).
Known For
Filmography
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Prince and the Pauper
Director
Bella Donna
Director
Zaza
Director
The White Pearl
Director
Sold
Director
The Eternal City
Director
When We Were Twenty-One
Director
Niobe
Director
The Morals of Marcus
Director
The Crucible
Director
Such a Little Queen
Director
Tess of the Storm Country
Director
A Good Little Devil
Director
Hearts Adrift
Director
The Count of Monte Cristo
Director
His Neighbor's Wife
Director
In the Bishop's Carriage
Director
The Prisoner of Zenda
Director
The Price
Director
Lost Illusions
Writer
The Lighthouse by the Sea
Director
Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
Director
On the Brink
Director
A Heroine of '76
Director
His Mother's Thanksgiving
Director
Sunshine Sue
Producer
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Director
The Attack on the Mill
Director
Russia, the Land of Oppression
Director
On the Western Frontier
Director
The Colored Stenographer
Director
Miss Sherlock Holmes
Director
She
Director
The Gentleman Burglar
Camera Operator
Nero and the Burning of Rome
Cinematography
Tale the Autumn Leaves Told
Director
A Country Girl's Seminary Life and Experiences
Camera Operator
Cupid’s Pranks
Director of Photography
Fireside Reminiscences
Camera Operator
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
Director of Photography
A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm
Director
The Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus
Director
Laughing Gas
Director
College Chums
Director
The Trainer’s Daughter, or A Race for Love
Director
Jack the Kisser
Director
Rivals
Director
Cohen’s Fire Sale
Director
The 'Teddy' Bears
Director