D.W. GRIFFITH BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

(1/22/1875 – 7/23/1948)

D.W. Griffith is considered one of the most influential and controversial film makers of early film history.  He created one of the most controversial films of all time, “The Birth of a Nation”, which chronicled the start of the Ku Klux Klan as heroes standing up to oppression from the North.  In response to his critics accusing him of blatant racism, he made a follow up film called “Intolerance”, showing the dangers of prejudice and intolerance.  Despite his controversial subject matter, Griffith pioneered several directorial techniques using camera placement and narrative that inspired later directors.

D.W. Griffith was born David Llewelyn Wark Griffith to Jacob “Roaring Jake” Griffith and Mary Perkins Griffith in rural La Grange, Kentucky.  Griffith’s father was a colonel in the Confederate army during the Civil War and a legislator for Kentucky.  Although Jacob Griffith died when D.W. was just seven, his outspoken views and stories from the Civil War had a dramatic impact on the youngster. 

The death of his father placed Griffith and his family in a dire economic situation, and when he was fourteen his mother moved the family to Louisville to start a boarding house.  Griffith quit school to work to help support his family, first finding work in a dry goods store, and later in a bookstore.

The young Griffith had dreams of being a playwright; however, he was only able to sell one of his plays to a theater.  Switching gears, Griffith decided to try his hand at acting, and had more success, appearing as an extra in many plays.

Griffith moved to New York, and tried to sell a script to producer Edwin Porter of Edison Studios.  Porter turned Griffith’s script down, but gave him a part as an actor in “Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest”.  Having broken into the movie business, Griffith became enthralled with the director’s role, and turned his attention to directing.  Griffith took an acting job with Biograph in New York.

Opportunity came knocking for Griffith when Biograph’s main director, Wallace McCutcheon, became ill, passing the directing duties to his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr.  However, Jr. was not successful in the job, and Biograph’s head, Henry Marvin, decided to give Griffith a chance.  The result is Griffith’s first feature film, “The Adventures of Dollie”.

Griffith went on to produce the feature film “Judith of Bethulia” for Biograph before there was a parting of ways.  Griffith insisted that feature length films were commercially viable, while Biograph disagreed, believing that films that long would hurt the audience’s eyes.

Griffith left Biograph and took his stock company of actors along with him.  He co-founded Reliance-Majestic Studios with Majestic Studio manager Harry Aitken.  Griffith also founded a production group called Triangle Film Corporation with his brother Roy Griffith and Harry Aitken.  His first work within his newfound freedom was 1915’s “The Clansmen”, which would later become known as “The Birth of a Nation”.

“The Birth of a Nation” would become his first blockbuster film.  It is one of the first feature-length films, and it broke box office records, earning approximately $10 million, while being made on a budget of $110,000.  However it was also one of the most controversial films of all time.  The NAACP protested the movie when it debuted, and riots broke out in Boston and Philadelphia, prompting Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Pittsburg and St. Louis to refuse to allow the film to be shown.

The financial success of “The Birth of a Nation” would contribute to the founding of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer by giving Louis B. Mayer the capital to start the business.  Mayer had bought the rights to distribute “The Birth of a Nation” in New England.  “The Birth of a Nation” also directly influenced other film makers to create movies as a response to the controversial subject matter.  In 1918, Emmett J. Scott and John W. Noble created the film “The Birth of a Race”, and in 1919 Oscare Micheauz released “Within Our Gates”.  It has also been stated that “The Birth of a Nation” was part of the inspiration for Margaret Mitchell to write “Gone with the Wind”.

Although it was successful, Griffith was stung by the accusations of racism that he received for “The Birth of a Nation”.  For his next film, he crafted an epic film chronicling humanity’s penchant for intolerance throughout the ages entitled “Intolerance”.  The film consisted of four separate stories, told in different historical eras.  Each story shows how intolerance led to atrocities depicting the fall of Babylon, the crucifixion of Christ, the massacre of the Huguenots and a more modern story.  Instead of telling each story individually, Griffith cut back and forth between them, weaving each story to its climax, increasing the speed between cuts and creating a dynamic tension.

Griffith spared no expense for “Intolerance”, putting on a lavish road show to accompany the film, but this extravagance contributed to the film’s financial failure.  The box office failure of the film led to the disbanding of Griffith’s Triangle Film Corporation.

Between 1917 and 1920 Griffith bounced around from studio to studio before founding United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.  Griffith continued to make films but could not come close to the success of “The Birth of a Nation”.

In 1924 Griffith left United Artists and directed a few more films featuring sound, including “Abraham Lincoln” (1930) and “The Struggle” (1931), although neither was successful and Griffith retired from filmmaking.

Later Griffith was asked to assist on several projects in the late 1930’s, helping Woody Van Dyke shoot the famous earthquake scene for “San Francisco” (1936), and Hal Roach to produce “Of Mice and Men” (1939) and “One Million B.C.” (1940).  Griffith resisted being credited for his involvement in the projects, going so far as to ask Hal Roach to remove his name from an advertisement for “Of Mice and Men” which listed him as producer.

Griffith died in 1948 of a cerebral hemorrhage after being found unconscious in the lobby of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles.  Griffith had been living in the hotel at the time.  After a large public service at the Hollywood Masonic Temple, Griffith was laid to rest at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard in Centerfield, Kentucky.

Griffith’s legacy has lived on in the eyes of his fellow film makers and the films they’ve created using techniques Griffith pioneered.  Charlie Chaplin called Griffith “The Teacher of us All”, a sentiment shared by such greats as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles.  Orson Welles is quoted as saying the following of Griffith, “I have never really hated Hollywood except for its treatment of D. W. Griffith.  No town, no industry, no profession, no art form owes so much to a single man”.

In 1953 the Director’s Guild of America created a D. W. Griffith Award, which was the highest honor the guild could bestow.  Recipients of the award include Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford.  In 1999 the Director’s Guild changed the name of the award to the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award, stating that Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation“ “helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes”.

D.W. Griffith has had five of his films preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.  They are, in order of release, “Lady Helen’s Escapade” (1909), “A Corner in Wheat” (1909), “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), “Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages” (1916), and “Broken Blossoms” (1919).

Filmography

1908              The Adventures of Dollie

1908              The Fight for Freedom

1908              The Tavern Keeper's Daughter

1908              The Black Viper

1908              The Red Man and the Child

1908              Deceived Slumming Party

1908              The Bandit's Waterloo

1908              A Calamitous Elopement

1908              The Greaser's Gauntlet

1908              The Man and the Woman

1908              The Fatal Hour

1908              For Love of Gold

1908              Balked at the Altar

1908              For a Wife's Honor

1908              Betrayed by a Handprint

1908              Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court

1908              The Girl and the Outlaw

1908              Behind the Scenes

1908              The Red Girl

1908              The Heart of O'Yama

1908              Where the Breakers Roar

1908              A Smoked Husband

1908              The Stolen Jewels

1908              The Devil

1908              The Zulu's Heart

1908              Father Gets in the Game

1908              Ingomar, the Barbarian

1908              The Vaquero's Vow

1908              The Planter's Wife

1908              Romance of a Jewess

1908              The Call of the Wild

1908              Concealing a Burglar

1908              After Many Years

1908              The Pirate's Gold

1908              The Taming of the Shrew

1908              The Guerrilla

1908              The Song of the Shirt

1908              The Ingrate

1908              A Woman's Way

1908              The Clubman and the Tramp

1908              Money Mad

1908              The Valet's Wife

1908              The Feud and the Turkey

1908              The Reckoning

1908              The Test of Friendship

1908              An Awful Moment

1908              The Christmas Burglars

1908              Mr. Jones at the Ball

1908              The Helping Hand

1909              One Touch of Nature

1909              Mamma

1909              The Heart of an Outlaw

1909              Bill Sharkey's Last Game

1909              The Maniac Cook

1909              Mrs. Jones Entertains

1909              Love Finds a Way

1909              The Honor of Thieves

1909              The Sacrifice

1909              A Rural Elopement

1909              Those Boys!

1909              The Criminal Hypnotist

1909              Mr. Jones Has a Card Party

1909              The Fascinating Mrs. Francis

1909              The Welcome Burglar

1909              Those Awful Hats

1909              The Cord of Life

1909              The Girls and Daddy

1909              The Brahma Diamond

1909              A Wreath in Time

1909              Edgar Allan Poe

1909              Tragic Love

1909              His Ward's Love

1909              The Curtain Pole

1909              The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals

1909              The Hindoo Dagger

1909              The Politician's Love Story

1909              The Golden Louis

1909              At the Altar

1909              The Prussian Spy

1909              His Wife's Mother

1909              A Fool's Revenge

1909              The Wooden Leg

1909              The Roue's Heart

1909              The Salvation Army Lass

1909              The Lure of the Gown

1909              I Did It

1909              The Voice of the Violin

1909              The Deception

1909              And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

1909              A Burglar's Mistake

1909              The Medicine Bottle

1909              Jones and His New Neighbors

1909              A Drunkard's Reformation

1909              Trying to Get Arrested

1909              The Road to the Heart

1909              Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade

1909              A Rude Hostess

1909              The Winning Coat

1909              A Sound Sleeper

1909              Confidence

1909              A Troublesome Satchel

1909              Lady Helen's Escapade

1909              The Drive for a Life

1909              Twin Brothers

1909              Lucky Jim

1909              Tis an Ill Wind That Blows No Good

1909              The Suicide Club

1909              The Eavesdropper

1909              One Busy Hour

1909              The Note in the Shoe

1909              Jones and the Lady Book Agent

1909              The French Duel

1909              A Baby's Shoe

1909              The Jilt

1909              Resurrection

1909              Two Memories

1909              Eloping with Auntie

1909              The Cricket on the Hearth

1909              His Duty

1909              Eradicating Aunty

1909              What Drink Did

1909              The Violin Maker of Cremona

1909              A New Trick

1909              The Lonely Villa

1909              The Son's Return

1909              Her First Biscuits

1909              The Faded Lilies

1909              Was Justice Served?

1909              The Peachbasket Hat

1909              The Mexican Sweethearts

1909              The Way of Man

1909              The Necklace

1909              The Message

1909              The Country Doctor

1909              The Cardinal's Conspiracy

1909              Tender Hearts

1909              The Friend of the Family

1909              The Renunciation

1909              Sweet and Twenty

1909              Jealousy and the Man

1909              A Convict's Sacrifice

1909              The Slave

1909              A Strange Meeting

1909              The Mended Lute

1909              They Would Elope

1909              Mr. Jones' Burglar

1909              The Better Way

1909              With Her Card

1909              Mrs. Jones' Lover or I Want My Hat

1909              His Wife's Visitor

1909              The Indian Runner's Romance

1909              The Seventh Day

1909              Oh, Uncle!

1909              Pranks

1909              The Mills of the Gods

1909              The Sealed Room

1909              The Little Darling

1909              The Hessian Renegades

1909              Comata, the Sioux

1909              Getting Even

1909              The Children's Friend

1909              The Broken Locket

1909              In Old Kentucky

1909              A Fair Exchange

1909              Leather Stocking

1909              Wanted, a Child

1909              The Awakening

1909              Pippa Passes or The Song of Conscience

1909              Fools of Fate

1909              The Little Teacher

1909              A Change of Heart

1909              His Lost Love

1909              The Expiation

1909              In the Watches of the Night

1909              Lines of White on a Sullen Sea

1909              What's Your Hurry?

1909              The Gibson Goddess

1909              Nursing a Viper

1909              The Restoration

1909              The Light That Came

1909              Two Women and a Man

1909              A Sweet Revenge

1909              A Midnight Adventure

1909              The Open Gate

1909              The Mountaineer's Honor

1909              The Trick That Failed

1909              In the Window Recess

1909              The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period

1909              Through the Breakers

1909              The Red Man's View

1909              A Corner in Wheat

1909              The Test

1909              In a Hempen Bag

1909              A Trap for Santa Claus

1909              In Little Italy

1909              To Save Her Soul

1909              The Day After

1909              Choosing a Husband

1910              The Rocky Road

1910              The Dancing Girl of Butte

1910              Her Terrible Ordeal

1910              On the Reef

1910              The Call

1910              The Honor of His Family

1910              The Last Deal

1910              The Cloister's Touch

1910              The Woman from Mellon's

1910              The Course of True Love

1910              The Duke's Plan

1910              One Night and Then

1910              The Englishman and the Girl

1910              His Last Burglary

1910              Taming a Husband

1910              The Final Settlement

1910              The Newlyweds

1910              The Thread of Destiny

1910              In Old California

1910              The Man

1910              The Converts

1910              Faithful

1910              The Twisted Trail

1910              Gold Is Not All

1910              The Smoker

1910              His Last Dollar

1910              The Two Brothers

1910              As It Is in Life

1910              A Rich Revenge

1910              A Romance of the Western Hills

1910              Thou Shalt Not

1910              The Tenderfoot's Triumph

1910              The Way of the World

1910              Up a Tree

1910              The Gold Seekers

1910              The Unchanging Sea

1910              Love Among the Roses

1910              Over Silent Paths

1910              An Affair of Hearts

1910              Ramona

1910              A Knot in the Plot

1910              The Impalement

1910              In the Season of Buds

1910              The Purgation

1910              A Child of the Ghetto

1910              A Victim of Jealousy

1910              In the Border States

1910              The Face at the Window

1910              Never Again

1910              May and December

1910              The Marked Time-Table

1910              A Child's Impulse

1910              Muggsy's First Sweetheart

1910              A Midnight Cupid

1910              What the Daisy Said

1910              A Child's Faith

1910              A Flash of Light

1910              Serious Sixteen

1910              As the Bells Rang Out!

1910              The Call to Arms

1910              Unexpected Help

1910              An Arcadian Maid

1910              Her Father's Pride

1910              The House with Closed Shutters

1910              A Salutary Lesson

1910              The Usurer

1910              An Old Story with a New Ending

1910              The Sorrows of the Unfaithful

1910              Wilful Peggy

1910              The Modern Prodigal

1910              The Affair of an Egg

1910              A Summer Idyll

1910              Little Angels of Luck

1910              A Mohawk's Way

1910              In Life's Cycle

1910              A Summer Tragedy

1910              The Oath and the Man

1910              Rose O'Salem Town

1910              Examination Day at School

1910              The Iconoclast

1910              That Chink at Golden Gulch

1910              The Broken Doll

1910              The Banker's Daughters

1910              The Message of the Violin

1910              Two Little Waifs

1910              Waiter No. 5

1910              The Fugitive

1910              Simple Charity

1910              Sunshine Sue

1910              The Song of the Wildwood Flute

1910              His New Lid

1910              A Plain Song

1910              A Child's Stratagem

1910              The Golden Supper

1910              His Sister-In-Law

1910              The Lesson

1910              White Roses

1910              Winning Back His Love

1911              Flaming Arrows

1911              The Two Paths

1911              When a Man Loves

1911              The Italian Barber

1911              His Trust

1911              His Trust and His Trust Fulfilled

1911              Fate's Turning

1911              The Poor Sick Men

1911              A Wreath of Orange Blossoms

1911              Three Sisters

1911              Heart Beats of Long Ago

1911              What Shall We Do with Our Old?

1911              Fisher Folks

1911              The Diamond Star

1911              His Daughter

1911              The Lily of the Tenements

1911              The Heart of a Savage

1911              A Decree of Destiny

1911              Conscience

1911              Was He a Coward?

1911              Teaching Dad to Like Her

1911              The Lonedale Operator

1911              The Spanish Gypsy

1911              The Broken Cross

1911              The Chief's Daughter

1911              Paradise Lost

1911              Madame Rex

1911              A Knight of the Road

1911              His Mother's Scarf

1911              How She Triumphed

1911              The Two Sides

1911              In the Days of '49

1911              The New Dress

1911              The Crooked Road

1911              The White Rose of the Wilds

1911              A Romany Tragedy

1911              The Smile of a Child

1911              Enoch Arden: Part I

1911              Enoch Arden: Part II

1911              The Primal Call

1911              Her Sacrifice

1911              Fighting Blood

1911              The Thief and the Girl

1911              The Jealous Husband

1911              Bobby, the Coward

1911              The Indian Brothers

1911              A Country Cupid

1911              The Last Drop of Water

1911              Out from the Shadow

1911              The Ruling Passion

1911              The Sorrowful Example

1911              The Blind Princess and the Poet

1911              The Rose of Kentucky

1911              Swords and Hearts

1911              The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of

1911              The Old Confectioner's Mistake

1911              The Squaw's Love

1911              Dan the Dandy

1911              The Revenue Man and the Girl

1911              Her Awakening

1911              The Making of a Man

1911              Italian Blood

1911              The Unveiling

1911              The Adventures of Billy

1911              The Long Road

1911              Love in the Hills

1911              The Battle

1911              The Trail of Books

1911              Through Darkened Vales

1911              The Miser's Heart

1911              Sunshine Through the Dark

1911              A Woman Scorned

1911              The Failure

1911              Saved from Himself

1911              As in a Looking Glass

1911              A Terrible Discovery

1911              The Voice of the Child

1912              Grannie

1912              The Baby and the Stork

1912              A Tale of the Wilderness

1912              The Eternal Mother

1912              The Old Bookkeeper

1912              For His Son

1912              A Blot on the 'Scutcheon

1912              The Transformation of Mike

1912              A Sister's Love

1912              Billy's Stratagem

1912              The Mender of Nets

1912              Under Burning Skies

1912              The Sunbeam

1912              A Siren of Impulse

1912              A String of Pearls

1912              The Girl and Her Trust

1912              Iola's Promise

1912              The Root of Evil

1912              The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch

1912              The Punishment

1912              Fate's Interception

1912              The Female of the Species

1912              Just Like a Woman

1912              One Is Business, the Other Crime

1912              The Lesser Evil

1912              The Old Actor

1912              A Lodging for the Night

1912              His Lesson

1912              When Kings Were the Law

1912              A Beast at Bay

1912              An Outcast Among Outcasts

1912              Home Folks

1912              A Temporary Truce

1912              Lena and the Geese

1912              The Spirit Awakened

1912              The School Teacher and the Waif

1912              Man's Lust for Gold

1912              An Indian Summer

1912              Man's Genesis

1912              Heaven Avenges

1912              The Sands of Dee

1912              Black Sheep

1912              The Narrow Road

1912              A Child's Remorse

1912              The Inner Circle

1912              A Change of Spirit

1912              A Pueblo Romance

1912              A Pueblo Legend

1912              In the North Woods

1912              An Unseen Enemy

1912              Blind Love

1912              Two Daughters of Eve

1912              Friends

1912              So Near, Yet So Far

1912              A Feud in the Kentucky Hills

1912              The Chief's Blanket

1912              In the Aisles of the Wild

1912              The One She Loved

1912              The Painted Lady

1912              The Musketeers of Pig Alley

1912              Heredity

1912              Gold and Glitter

1912              My Baby

1912              The Informer

1912              Brutality

1912              The New York Hat

1912              My Hero

1912              The Burglar's Dilemma

1912              A Cry for Help

1912              The God Within

1913              Mother Love

1913              Three Friends

1913              The Telephone Girl and the Lady

1913              An Adventure in the Autumn Woods

1913              The Tender Hearted Boy

1913              A Misappropriated Turkey

1913              Brothers

1913              Oil and Water

1913              Drink's Lure

1913              A Chance Deception

1913              Love in an Apartment Hotel

1913              Broken Ways

1913              A Girl's Stratagem

1913              The Unwelcome Guest

1913              Near to Earth

1913              Fate

1913              A Welcome Intruder

1913              The Sheriff's Baby

1913              The Hero of Little Italy

1913              The Perfidy of Mary

1913              The Little Tease

1913              A Misunderstood Boy

1913              The Left-Handed Man

1913              The Lady and the Mouse

1913              If We Only Knew

1913              The Wanderer

1913              The Stolen Loaf

1913              The House of Darkness

1913              The Yaqui Cur

1913              Just Gold

1913              His Mother's Son

1913              The Ranchero's Revenge

1913              A Timely Interception

1913              Death's Marathon

1913              The Mothering Heart

1913              Her Mother's Oath

1913              The Sorrowful Shore

1913              The Reformers; or, The Lost Art of Minding One's Business

1913              The Enemy's Baby

1913              The Mistake

1913              The Coming of Angelo

1913              Two Men of the Desert

1913              The Adopted Brother

1913              Madonna of the Storm

1913              The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

1913              The Conscience of Hassan Bey

1914              Waifs

1914              The Massacre

1914              Judith of Bethulia

1914              The Battle of the Sexes

1914              Brute Force

1914              Home, Sweet Home

1914              The Escape

1914              The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'

1915              The Birth of a Nation

1916              A Day with Governor Whitman

1916              Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

1918              A Liberty Bond Appeal

1918              Hearts of the World

1918              The Great Love

1918              Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal

1918              The Greatest Thing in Life

1919              The World of Columbus

1919              A Romance of Happy Valley

1919              The Girl Who Stayed at Home

1919              Broken Blossoms

1919              True Heart Susie

1919              The Fall of Babylon

1919              The Mother and the Law

1919              Scarlet Days

1919              The Greatest Question

1920              The Idol Dancer

1920              Remodeling Her Husband

1920              The Love Flower

1920              Way Down East

1921              Dream Street

1921              Orphans of the Storm

1922              One Exciting Night

1922              Mammy's Boy

1923              The White Rose

1924              America

1924              Isn't Life Wonderful

1925              Sally of the Sawdust

1925              That Royle Girl

1926              The Sorrows of Satan

1927              Topsy and Eva

1928              Drums of Love

1928              The Battle of the Sexes

1929              Lady of the Pavements

1930              Abraham Lincoln

1931              The Struggle