Edwin S. Porter
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- April 21, 1870
- Died
- April 30, 1941 (aged 71)
- Birthplace
- Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USA
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
The Great Train Robbery
Life of an American Fireman
Electrocuting an Elephant
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City
The Gay Shoe Clerk
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The 'Teddy' Bears
Jack and the Beanstalk
Pan-American Exposition by Night
Filmography
The Eternal City
Movie · Director
Sold
Movie · Director
Zaza
Movie · Director
The Morals of Marcus
Movie · Director
The White Pearl
Movie · Director
Bella Donna
Movie · Director
Niobe
Movie · Director
The Prince and the Pauper
Movie · Director
When We Were Twenty-One
Movie · Director
A Good Little Devil
Movie · Director
Tess of the Storm Country
Movie · Director
Hearts Adrift
Movie · Director
Such a Little Queen
Movie · Director
The Crucible
Movie · Director
His Neighbor's Wife
Movie · Director
The Prisoner of Zenda
Movie · Director
The Count of Monte Cristo
Movie · Director
In the Bishop's Carriage
Movie · Director
A Heroine of '76
Movie · Director
The Lighthouse by the Sea
Movie · Director
Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
Movie · Director
Lost Illusions
Movie · Director
On the Brink
Movie · Director
The Price
Movie · Director
Russia, the Land of Oppression
Movie · Director
The Colored Stenographer
Movie · Director
On the Western Frontier
Movie · Director
Tale the Autumn Leaves Told
Movie · Director
A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm
Movie · Director
Miss Sherlock Holmes
Movie · Director
She
Movie · Director
The 'Teddy' Bears
Movie · Director
Cohen’s Fire Sale
Movie · Director
The Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus
Movie · Director
The Trainer’s Daughter, or A Race for Love
Movie · Director
Rivals
Movie · Director
College Chums
Movie · Director
Laughing Gas
Movie · Director
Jack the Kisser
Movie · Director
Poor John
Movie · Director
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
Movie · Director
Three American Beauties
Movie · Director
A Winter Straw Ride
Movie · Director
Getting Evidence
Movie · Director
The Life of an American Cowboy
Movie · Director
Life of a Cowboy
Movie · Director
Waiting at the Church
Movie · Director
How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
Movie · Director
The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog
Movie · Director
The Little Train Robbery
Movie · Director
Coney Island at Night
Movie · Director
The Night Before Christmas
Movie · Director
Scenes and Incidents, Russo-Japanese Peace Conference, Portsmouth, N. H.
Movie · Director
The Miller’s Daughter
Movie · Director
The White Caps
Movie · Director
The Seven Ages
Movie · Director
The Kleptomaniac
Movie · Director
The Watermelon Patch
Movie · Director
The Life of an American Policeman
Movie · Director
How Jones Lost His Roll
Movie · Director
The Train Wreckers
Movie · Director
The Boarding School Girls
Movie · Director
I.B. Dam and the Whole Dam Family
Movie · Director
The Ex-Convict
Movie · Director
European Rest Cure
Movie · Director
How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns
Movie · Director
"Weary Willlie" Kisses the Bride
Movie · Director
A Rube Couple at a County Fair
Movie · Director
The Strenuous Life; or, Anti-Race Suicide
Movie · Director
Scarecrow Pump
Movie · Director
Scenes in an Infant Orphan Asylum
Movie · Director
R. F. Outcault Making a Sketch of Buster and Tige
Movie · Director
Capture of Yegg Bank Burglars
Movie · Director
Japanese Acrobats
Movie · Director
Fighting the Flames, Dreamland
Movie · Director
Crossing Ice Bridge at Niagara Falls
Movie · Director
Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden
Movie · Director
Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association Championships
Movie · Director
Animated Painting
Movie · Director
The Great Train Robbery
Movie · Director
Life of an American Fireman
Movie · Director
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Movie · Director
Rube and Mandy at Coney Island
Movie · Director
New York City 'Ghetto' Fish Market
Movie · Director
The Unappreciated Joke
Movie · Director
The Messenger Boy's Mistake
Movie · Director
Panorama of Riker's Island, N.Y.
Movie · Director
White Wings on Review
Movie · Director
New York Harbor Police Boat Patrol Capturing Pirates
Movie · Director
New York City Dumping Wharf
Movie · Director
Fireboat 'New Yorker' in Action
Movie · Director
Sorting Refuse at Incinerating Plant, New York City
Movie · Director
Electrocuting an Elephant
Movie · Director
Panorama of Blackwell's Island
Movie · Director
Panorama Water Front and Brooklyn Bridge from East River
Movie · Director
Jack and the Beanstalk
Movie · Director
Burning of Durland's Riding Academy
Movie · Director
Babies Rolling Eggs
Movie · Director
Charleston Chain-Gang
Movie · Director
How They Do Things on the Bowery
Movie · Director
Appointment by Telephone
Movie · Director
Capture of the Biddle Brothers
Movie · Director
The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His Airship
Movie · Director
Fun in a Bakery Shop
Movie · Director
Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King
Movie · Director
Circular Panorama of Electric Tower
Movie · Director
Pan-American Exposition by Night
Movie · Director
Panorama of Esplanade by Night
Movie · Director
The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken
Movie · Director
Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog
Movie · Director
Another Job for the Undertaker
Movie · Director
The Tramp's Unexpected Skate
Movie · Director
Why Mr. Nation Wants a Divorce
Movie · Director
Kansas Saloon Smashers
Movie · Director
Sampson-Schley Controversy
Movie · Director
The Old Maid in the Horsecar
Movie · Director
Love by the Light of the Moon
Movie · Director
The Reversible Divers
Movie · Director
Life Rescue at Long Branch
Movie · Director
Day at the Circus
Movie · Director
The Esquimaux Village
Movie · Director
A Trip Around the Pan-American Exposition
Movie · Director
President McKinley and Escort Going to the Capitol
Movie · Director
Rubes in the Theatre
Movie · Director
Uncle Josh's Nightmare
Movie · Director
Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel
Movie · Director
A Dull Razor
Movie · Director
An Animated Luncheon
Movie · Director
The Magician
Movie · Director
Ching Ling Foo Outdone
Movie · Director
Faust and Marguerite
Movie · Director
An Artist's Dream
Movie · Director
The Mystic Swing
Movie · Director
Dewar's Scotch Whisky
Movie · Director
The Kiss
Movie · Director
Strange Adventure of New York Drummer
Movie · Director