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Edwin S. Porter

Director

Edwin S. Porter

Born April 21, 1870 in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USADied April 30, 1941139 films

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.

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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).

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The best way into Edwin S. Porter's work
The Great Train Robbery posterFirst watchThe Great Train Robbery19037.0After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.View film

Essential films

Ranked by acclaim and reach
Life of an American Fireman poster6.0Life of an American Fireman1903Dream of a Rarebit Fiend poster6.3Dream of a Rarebit Fiend1906Electrocuting an Elephant poster2.7Electrocuting an Elephant1903

Filmography

139 films as director
  1. 1915The Prince and the PauperDirector
  2. 1915Bella DonnaDirector
  3. 1915ZazaDirector
  4. 1915The White PearlDirector
  5. 1915SoldDirector
  6. 1915The Eternal CityDirector
  7. 1915When We Were Twenty-OneDirector
  8. 1915NiobeDirector
  9. 1915The Morals of MarcusDirector
  10. 1914The CrucibleDirector
  11. 1914Such a Little QueenDirector
  12. 1914Tess of the Storm CountryDirector
  13. 1914A Good Little DevilDirector
  14. 1914Hearts AdriftDirector
  15. 1913The Count of Monte CristoDirector
  16. 1913His Neighbor's WifeDirector
  17. 1913In the Bishop's CarriageDirector
  18. 1913The Prisoner of ZendaDirector
  19. 1911The PriceDirector
  20. 1911Lost IllusionsDirector
  21. 1911The Lighthouse by the SeaDirector
  22. 1911Sherlock Holmes, Jr.Director
  23. 1911On the BrinkDirector
  24. 1911A Heroine of '76Director
  25. 1910His Mother's ThanksgivingDirector
  26. 1910Alice's Adventures in WonderlandDirector
  27. 1910The Attack on the MillDirector
  28. 1910Russia, the Land of OppressionDirector
  29. 1909On the Western FrontierDirector
  30. 1909The Colored StenographerDirector
  31. 1908Miss Sherlock HolmesDirector
  32. 1908SheDirector
  33. 1908Tale the Autumn Leaves ToldDirector
  34. 1908A Suburbanite's Ingenious AlarmDirector
  35. 1907The Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa ClausDirector
  36. 1907Laughing GasDirector
  37. 1907College ChumsDirector
  38. 1907The Trainer’s Daughter, or A Race for LoveDirector
  39. 1907Jack the KisserDirector
  40. 1907RivalsDirector
  41. 1907Cohen’s Fire SaleDirector
  42. 1907The 'Teddy' BearsDirector
  43. 1907Poor JohnDirector
  44. 1906Getting EvidenceDirector
  45. 1906How the Office Boy Saw the Ball GameDirector
  46. 1906Waiting at the ChurchDirector
  47. 1906The Life of an American CowboyDirector
  48. 1906Life of a CowboyDirector
  49. 1906Three American BeautiesDirector
  50. 1906A Winter Straw RideDirector
  51. 1906Dream of a Rarebit FiendDirector
  52. 1905The Night Before ChristmasDirector
  53. 1905The Life of an American PolicemanDirector
  54. 1905The Train WreckersDirector
  55. 1905The Miller’s DaughterDirector
  56. 1905The Watermelon PatchDirector
  57. 1905The White CapsDirector
  58. 1905The Little Train RobberyDirector
  59. 1905The Boarding School GirlsDirector
  60. 1905Scenes and Incidents, Russo-Japanese Peace Conference, Portsmouth, N. H.Director
  61. 1905The Whole Dam Family and the Dam DogDirector
  62. 1905I.B. Dam and the Whole Dam FamilyDirector
  63. 1905Coney Island at NightDirector
  64. 1905How Jones Lost His RollDirector
  65. 1905The Seven AgesDirector
  66. 1905The KleptomaniacDirector
  67. 1904The Strenuous Life; or, Anti-Race SuicideDirector
  68. 1904Scarecrow PumpDirector
  69. 1904The Ex-ConvictDirector
  70. 1904A Rube Couple at a County FairDirector
  71. 1904"Weary Willlie" Kisses the BrideDirector
  72. 1904Capture of Yegg Bank BurglarsDirector
  73. 1904European Rest CureDirector
  74. 1904How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal ColumnsDirector
  75. 1904Fighting the Flames, DreamlandDirector
  76. 1904Scenes in an Infant Orphan AsylumDirector
  77. 1904Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association ChampionshipsDirector
  78. 1904Japanese AcrobatsDirector
  79. 1904R. F. Outcault Making a Sketch of Buster and TigeDirector
  80. 1904Animated PaintingDirector
  81. 1904Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square GardenDirector
  82. 1904Crossing Ice Bridge at Niagara FallsDirector
  83. 1903The Great Train RobberyDirector
  84. 1903The Messenger Boy's MistakeDirector
  85. 1903Uncle Tom's CabinDirector
  86. 1903Rube and Mandy at Coney IslandDirector
  87. 1903The Unappreciated JokeDirector
  88. 1903White Wings on ReviewDirector
  89. 1903New York City Dumping WharfDirector
  90. 1903Sorting Refuse at Incinerating Plant, New York CityDirector
  91. 1903Fireboat 'New Yorker' in ActionDirector
  92. 1903Panorama of Riker's Island, N.Y.Director
  93. 1903New York City 'Ghetto' Fish MarketDirector
  94. 1903New York Harbor Police Boat Patrol Capturing PiratesDirector
  95. 1903Panorama of Blackwell's IslandDirector
  96. 1903Panorama Water Front and Brooklyn Bridge from East RiverDirector
  97. 1903Life of an American FiremanDirector
  98. 1903Electrocuting an ElephantDirector
  99. 1902How They Do Things on the BoweryDirector
  100. 1902Jack and the BeanstalkDirector
  101. 1902Appointment by TelephoneDirector
  102. 1902Charleston Chain-GangDirector
  103. 1902Babies Rolling EggsDirector
  104. 1902Fun in a Bakery ShopDirector
  105. 1902Burning of Durland's Riding AcademyDirector
  106. 1902Capture of the Biddle BrothersDirector
  107. 1902The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His AirshipDirector
  108. 1901Panorama of Esplanade by NightDirector
  109. 1901The Martyred PresidentsDirector
  110. 1901Pan-American Exposition by NightDirector
  111. 1901Day at the CircusDirector
  112. 1901Life Rescue at Long BranchDirector
  113. 1901Circular Panorama of Electric TowerDirector
  114. 1901The Reversible DiversDirector
  115. 1901Sampson-Schley ControversyDirector
  116. 1901The Esquimaux VillageDirector
  117. 1901A Trip Around the Pan-American ExpositionDirector
  118. 1901The Tramp's Unexpected SkateDirector
  119. 1901Another Job for the UndertakerDirector
  120. 1901Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching DogDirector