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).
Filmography
all 221
Movies 221
Director 166
Producer 8
self 1

Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982)

Bella Donna (1915)

Zaza (1915)

The White Pearl (1915)

Sold (1915)

The Eternal City (1915)

Niobe (1915)

The Morals of Marcus (1915)

Such a Little Queen (1914)

A Good Little Devil (1914)

Hearts Adrift (1914)

His Neighbor's Wife (1913)

The Price (1911)

Lost Illusions (1911)

Sherlock Holmes, Jr. (1911)

On the Brink (1911)

A Heroine of '76 (1911)

Sunshine Sue (1910)

In Life's Cycle (1910)

The Last Deal (1910)

Faust (1909)

The House of Cards (1909)

Hansel and Gretel (1909)

The Star of Bethlehem (1909)

The Cord of Life (1909)

Miss Sherlock Holmes (1908)

The Fatal Hour (1908)

A Country Girl's Seminary Life and Experiences (1908)

Cupid’s Pranks (1908)

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908)

Laughing Gas (1907)

College Chums (1907)

Jack the Kisser (1907)

The Rivals (1907)

Cohen’s Fire Sale (1907)

Poor John (1907)

The 'Teddy' Bears (1907)

Getting Evidence (1906)

Kathleen Mavourneen (1906)

The Life of a Cowboy (1906)

The Terrible Kids (1906)

A Winter Straw Ride (1906)

Desperate Encounter Between Burglar and Police (1905)

The Train Wreckers (1905)

The Watermelon Patch (1905)

The White Caps (1905)

The Boarding School Girls (1905)

Mystic Shriners' Day, Dreamland, Coney Island (1905)

On a Good Old 5¢ Trolley Ride (1905)

Opening of Belmont Park Race Course (1905)

The Kleptomaniac (1905)

The Seven Ages (1905)

Scarecrow Pump (1904)

Miss Lillian Shaffer and Her Dancing Horse (1904)

The Ex-Convict (1904)

Railroad Smashup (1904)

Parsifal (1904)

European Rest Cure (1904)

Fire and Flames at Luna Park, Coney Island (An Attraction at Coney Island) (1904)

Canoeing on the Charles River, Boston, Mass. (1904)

Maniac Chase (1904)

Dog Factory (1904)

Annual Parade, New York Fire Department (1904)

Battle of Chemulpo Bay (1904)

Japanese Acrobats (1904)

Buster's Dog to the Rescue (1904)

Buster Brown and the Dude (1904)

Animated Painting (1904)

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden (1904)

Ice Skating in Central Park, N.Y. (1904)

Crossing Ice Bridge at Niagara Falls (1904)

Buster's Joke on Papa (I) (1903)

East Side Urchins Bathing in a Fountain (1903)

The Extra Turn (1903)

Turning the Tables (1903)

The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903)

Fireboat 'New Yorker' in Action (1903)

Panorama of Riker's Island, N.Y. (1903)

The Physical Culture Girl (1903)

Rock of Ages (1902)

Interrupted Bathers (1902)

Burning of St. Pierre (Martinique) (1902)

Little Miss Lillian (1902)

Tossing Eggs (1902)

Babies Rolling Eggs (1902)

The Burlesque Suicide (1902)

The Artist's Dilemma (1901)

Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison (1901)

A Phenomenal Contortionist (1901)

Day at the Circus (1901)

Panoramic View of Electric Tower from a Balloon (1901)

Esquimaux Game of Snap-the-Whip (1901)

The Esquimaux Village (1901)

A Dull Razor (1900)

An Artist's Dream (1900)

Faust and Marguerite (1900)

The Kiss (1900)

The Magician (1900)

An Animated Luncheon (1900)

The Mystic Swing (1900)

'Columbia' Winning the Cup (1899)

The Cavalier's Dream (1898)

Elopement on Horseback (1898)

Cuban Ambush (1898)

Cohen's Advertising Scheme

The Crucible
Information
Known ForDirecting
GenderMale
Birthday1870-04-21
Deathday1941-04-30 (71 years old)
Birth NameEdwin Stanton Porter
Birth PlaceConnellsville, United States
CitizenshipsUnited States
Also Known AsEdwin Stratton Porter, Ed Porter, Edward Porter, 에드윈 S. 포터, 에드윈 포터
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