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person_profile-Edwin S. Porter

Edwin S. Porter Died at age: 71

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Edwin S. Porter

Date of Birth:

Apr 21, 1870

Country of birth:

USA

Died:

Apr 30, 1941

Biography of

Edwin S. Porter

    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).

Photos of

Edwin S. Porter

Photos ( 1 Photos

Filmography of

Edwin S. Porter

Found 10 Movies in total

Bella Donna

Director

... 1915

... 1915

... 1915

... 1915

... 1914

Tess of the Storm Country

Director Of Photography

... 1914

A Good Little Devil

Director Of Photography

... 1914

Hearts Adrift

Director Of Photography

... 1914

... 1913

... 1913