D.W. Griffith
Birthday:
22 January 1875, LaGrange, Kentucky, USA
Birth Name:
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith
Height:
180 cm
David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War hero. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually mold his black-and-white view of human existence and history. In 18...
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David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War hero. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually mold his black-and-white view of human existence and history. In 1897 Griffith set out to pursue a career both acting and writing for the theater, but for the most part was unsuccessful. Reluctantly, he agreed to act in the new motion picture medium for Edwin S. Porter at the Edison Company. Griffith was eventually offered a job at the financially struggling American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., where he directed over four hundred and fifty short films, experimenting with the story-telling techniques he would later perfect in his epic The Birth of a Nation (1915).Griffith and his personal cinematographer G.W. Bitzer collaborated to create and perfect such cinematic devices as the flash-back, the iris shot, the mask and cross-cutting. In the years following "Birth", Griffith never again saw the same monumental success as his signature film and, in 1931, his increasing failures forced his retirement. Though hailed for his vision in narrative film-making, he was similarly criticized for his blatant racism. Griffith died in Los Angeles in 1948, one of the most dichotomous figures in film history. Show less «
by G.W. Bitzer in "Billy Bitzer: His Story."] A film without a message is just a waste of time.
by G.W. Bitzer in "Billy Bitzer: His Story."] A film without a message is just a waste of time.
[Instructions Griffith allegedly gave to his assistants during the making of one of his epics, quoted by Josef von Sternberg in his memoir "...Show more »
[Instructions Griffith allegedly gave to his assistants during the making of one of his epics, quoted by Josef von Sternberg in his memoir "Fun in a Chinese Laundry"] Move these 10,000 horses a trifle to the right, and that mob out there three feet forward. Show less «
There will never be talking pictures.
There will never be talking pictures.
Talkies, squeakies, moanies, songies, squawkies . . . Just give them ten years to develop and you're going to see the greatest artistic medi...Show more »
Talkies, squeakies, moanies, songies, squawkies . . . Just give them ten years to develop and you're going to see the greatest artistic medium the world has known. Show less «
Actors should never be important. Only directors should have power and place.
Actors should never be important. Only directors should have power and place.
Everything went downhill after Lillian [Lillian Gish] left me.
Everything went downhill after Lillian [Lillian Gish] left me.
[on what people associated with silent films] The good old American faculty of wanting to be shown things.
[on what people associated with silent films] The good old American faculty of wanting to be shown things.
I made them see, didn't I? I changed everything.
I made them see, didn't I? I changed everything.
Remember how small the world was before I came along? I brought it all to life: I moved the whole world onto a 20-foot screen.
Remember how small the world was before I came along? I brought it all to life: I moved the whole world onto a 20-foot screen.
Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.
Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? What art? What science?
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? What art? What science?
[on Douglas Fairbanks] He has such verve. He can use his body.
[on Douglas Fairbanks] He has such verve. He can use his body.
We do not want now and we never shall want the human voice with our films. Music -- fine music -- will always be the voice of the silent dra...Show more »
We do not want now and we never shall want the human voice with our films. Music -- fine music -- will always be the voice of the silent drama. Show less «
[on James Mason] That Mason is the greatest actor.
[on James Mason] That Mason is the greatest actor.
[on sound movies] It is my arrogant belief that we have lost beauty.
[on sound movies] It is my arrogant belief that we have lost beauty.
[on Mary Pickford] She never stopped listening and learning.
[on Mary Pickford] She never stopped listening and learning.
[to Mary Pickford] You're too little and too fat, but I might give you a job.
[to Mary Pickford] You're too little and too fat, but I might give you a job.
[on being honored at the 1935 Academy Awards ceremony] We had many worries in those days, small worries. Now you people have your worries an...Show more »
[on being honored at the 1935 Academy Awards ceremony] We had many worries in those days, small worries. Now you people have your worries and they are big ones. They have grown with the business - and no matter what its problems, it's the greatest business in the world. Show less «
D.W. Griffith's Photos
