Edwin S. Porter
Known For: Directing
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: April 21, 1870
Day of Death: April 30, 1941 (71 years old)
Place of Birth: Connellsville, Pennsylvania, USA
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).
1982
1915
1914
1913
1911
1910
1909
1908
Cinematography
Rescued from an Eagle's Nest
Director
Tale the Autumn Leaves Told
Director
A Suburbanite's Ingenious Alarm
Director
Fireside Reminiscences
Director
Miss Sherlock Holmes
Director
The Life of an American Cowboy
Scenario Writer
The Gentleman Burglar
Director
The Gentleman Burglar
Director of Photography
Cupid’s Pranks
Director
Cupid’s Pranks
Director
A Country Girl's Seminary Life and Experiences
1907
1906
Director
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
Director
Three American Beauties
Director
The Terrible Kids
Director
Kathleen Mavourneen
Director
A Winter Straw Ride
Director
Getting Evidence
Director
How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
Director of Photography
How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
Director of Photography
Getting Evidence
Director
The Life of a Cowboy
Director of Photography
A Winter Straw Ride
Director of Photography
Three American Beauties
Director
Waiting at the Church
Producer
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
1905
Director
The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog
Director
The Little Train Robbery
Director
Coney Island at Night
Director
The Night Before Christmas
Director
Scenes and Incidents, Russo-Japanese Peace Conference, Portsmouth, N. H.
Director
The Seven Ages
Director
The Train Wreckers
Director
How Jones Lost His Roll
Director
The Burglar's Slide for Life
Director
The Miller’s Daughter
Director
The Life of an American Policeman
Director
The Kleptomaniac
Director
The Watermelon Patch
Director
The White Caps
Director
Police Chasing Scorching Auto
Director of Photography
How Jones Lost His Roll
Director of Photography
The Night Before Christmas
Director
I.B. Dam and the Whole Dam Family
Camera Operator
Empire State Express, the Second, Taking Water on the Fly
Camera Operator
On a Good Old 5¢ Trolley Ride
Director
Desperate Encounter Between Burglar and Police
Director
The Boarding School Girls
1904
Director
How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns
Director
Maniac Chase
Director
The Ex-Convict
Director
European Rest Cure
Director
Rector's to Claremont
Director
A Rube Couple at a County Fair
Director
Nervy Nat Kisses the Bride
Director
The Strenuous Life; or, Anti-Race Suicide
Director
Buster Makes Room for His Mama at the Bargain Counter
Director
Scarecrow Pump
Director
Buster and Tige Put a Balloon Vendor Out of Business
Director
Pranks of Buster Brown and His Dog Tige
Director
Buster Brown and the Dude
Director
Buster's Dog to the Rescue
Director
Scenes in an Infant Orphan Asylum
Director
Parsifal
Director
Dog Factory
Director
Photographing a Female Crook
Director
A Brush Between Cowboys and Indians
Director
Western Stage Coach Hold Up
Director of Photography
Parsifal
Director
R. F. Outcault Making a Sketch of Buster and Tige
Director of Photography
Fire and Flames at Luna Park, Coney Island (An Attraction at Coney Island)
Director
City Hall to Harlem in 15 Seconds, Via the Subway Route
Director
Rounding Up of the “Yeggmen”
Camera Operator
Skirmish Between Russian and Japanese Advance Guards
Director
Skirmish Between Russian and Japanese Advance Guards
Camera Operator
Crossing Ice Bridge at Niagara Falls
Director of Photography
Canoeing on the Charles River, Boston, Mass.
Director
Animated Painting
Director
Japanese Acrobats
Director
Fighting the Flames, Dreamland
Director
Crossing Ice Bridge at Niagara Falls
Director
Railroad Smashup
Director
Battle of Chemulpo Bay
Director
Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden
1903
Actor Policeman
Life of an American Fireman
Director
The Great Train Robbery
Director of Photography
The Great Train Robbery
Director
Life of an American Fireman
Director
A Romance of the Rail
Director
The Gay Shoe Clerk
Director
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Director
New York City 'Ghetto' Fish Market
Director
What Happened in the Tunnel
Director
Rube and Mandy at Coney Island
Director
Subub Surprises the Burglar
Director
The Unappreciated Joke
Director
The Extra Turn
Director
The Messenger Boy's Mistake
Director
Panorama of Riker's Island, N.Y.
Director
Fireboat 'New Yorker' in Action
Director
New York Harbor Police Boat Patrol Capturing Pirates
Director
White Wings on Review
Director
Sorting Refuse at Incinerating Plant, New York City
Director
New York City Dumping Wharf
Director of Photography
The Gay Shoe Clerk
Director of Photography
What Happened in the Tunnel
Writer
The Great Train Robbery
Producer
The Great Train Robbery
Director of Photography
Electrocuting an Elephant
Director
Buster's Joke on Papa (I)
Director
Buster's Joke on Papa (II)
Director
Electrocuting an Elephant
Director
Street Car Chivalry
Director
Panorama of Blackwell's Island
Director
Panorama Water Front and Brooklyn Bridge from East River
Director
The Physical Culture Girl
1902
Director of Photography
Jack and the Beanstalk
Director
Jack and the Beanstalk
Director
Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show
Director
Fun in a Bakery Shop
Director
Burning of Durland's Riding Academy
Director
Interrupted Bathers
Director
The Burlesque Suicide, No. 2
Director
Babies Rolling Eggs
Director
Charleston Chain-Gang
Director
How They Do Things on the Bowery
Director
Rock of Ages
Director
Appointment by Telephone
Director
The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His Airship
Director
The Burlesque Suicide
Director
Burning of St. Pierre (Martinique)
Director
Capture of the Biddle Brothers
1901
Director
What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City
Director
Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King
Director
Circular Panorama of Electric Tower
Director
Pan-American Exposition by Night
Director
Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison
Director
Trapeze Disrobing Act
Director
Panorama of Esplanade by Night
Director
Another Job for the Undertaker
Director
The Martyred Presidents
Director
The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken
Director
Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog
Director
The Tramp's Unexpected Skate
Director
Why Mr. Nation Wants a Divorce
Director
Sampson-Schley Controversy
Director
Kansas Saloon Smashers
Director
The Old Maid in the Horsecar
Director
Love by the Light of the Moon
Director
The Artist's Dilemma
Director
The Finish of Bridget McKeen
Director of Photography
Esquimaux Game of Snap-the-Whip
Director of Photography
Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King
Director of Photography
Circular Panorama of Electric Tower
Director
Catching an Early Train
Director
The Reversible Divers
Cinematography
Aunt Sallie's Wonderful Bustle
Director
Life Rescue at Long Branch
Director
Photographing a Country Couple
Director
Day at the Circus
Director of Photography
Panoramic View of Electric Tower from a Balloon
Director of Photography
Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison
