David Llewelyn Wark Griffith | birthdate = January 22, 1875(1875-01-22) | location = Though United Artists survived as a company, Griffith"s association with it was short-lived, and while some of his later films did well at the box office, commercial success often eluded him. Features from this period include Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921) and America (1924). Griffith made only two sound films, Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither was successful, and he never made another film. For the last seventeen years of his life he lived as a virtual hermit in Los Angeles. He died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1948 on his way to a Hollywood hospital from the Knickerbocker Hotel where he had been living alone.
Achievements
D. W. Griffith has been called the father of film grammar. Few scholars still hold that his "innovations" really began with him, but Griffith was a key figure in establishing the set of codes that have become the universal backbone of film language. He was particularly influential in popularizing "cross-cutting"—using film editing to alternate between different events occurring at the same time—in order to build suspense. That being said, he still used many elements from the "primitive" style of movie-making that predated classical Hollywood"s continuity system, such as frontal staging, exaggerated gestures, minimal camera movement, and an absence of point of view shots. Some claim, too, that he "invented" the close-up shot.
Credit for Griffith"s cinematic innovations must be shared with his cameraman of many years, Billy Bitzer. In addition, he himself credited the legendary silent star Lillian Gish, who appeared in several of his films, with creating a new style of acting for the cinema.ControversyGriffith was a highly controversial figure. Immensely popular at the time of its release, his film The Birth of a Nation (1915), based on the novel and play The Clansman by Thomas W. Dixon, was a white supremacist interpretation of history, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People attempted to have it banned. After that effort failed, they attempted to have some of the film"s more disagreeable scenes censored. The scenes in question depict derogatory stereotypes of blacks, and white members of the Ku Klux Klan killing blacks to protect white women, which is portrayed as favorable toward the Ku Klux Klan members. Griffith did also say that he made the film with the intention to show how the Scalawags and Carpetbaggers began to rule as tyrants with President Lincoln out of the picture. Griffith did also try to denounce prejudice in his next film Intolerance by showing how slavery was wrong because the Babylonians tried to make some slaves out of their people who didn"t believe in some of the main traditional gods. According to Lillian Gish in her autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me, Griffith towards the end of his life expressed an interest in making a film that would be a tribute to African-Americans, but he never got the chance to make that film.LegacyStamp issued by the United States Postal Service commemorating D. W. Griffith.Motion picture legend Charles Chaplin called Griffith "The Teacher Of Us All". This sentiment was widely shared. Filmmakers as diverse as John Ford and Orson Welles have spoken of their respect for the director of Intolerance. Whether or not he actually invented new techniques in film grammar, he seems to have been among the first to understand how these techniques could be used to create an expressive language. In early shorts such as Biograph"s The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) which was the first "Gangster film", we can see how Griffith"s attention to camera placement and lighting heighten mood and tension. In making Intolerance the director opened up new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative.Griffith was honored on a 10-cent postage stamp by the United States issued May 5, 1975.In 1953, the Directors Guild of America instituted the D.W. Griffith Award, its highest honor. Its recipients included Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, John Huston, Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and Griffith"s friend Cecil B. DeMille. On 15 December 1999, however, DGA President Jack Shea and the DGA National Board—without membership consultation (though unnecessary according to DGA"s regulations)—announced that the award would be renamed the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award because Griffith"s film The Birth of a Nation had "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes". The following living recipients of the award agreed with the guild"s decision: Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Lumet.D.W. Griffith has five films preserved in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". These films are 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).Selected filmographyMoney Mad (1908)Balked at the Altar (1908)Romance of a Jewess (1908) with Florence LawrenceResurrection (1909)The Country Doctor (1909) with Florence Lawrence and Mary PickfordIn Old California (1910) with Henry B. WalthallIn the Border States (1910) with Henry B. WalthallThe Lonedale Operator (1911) with Blanche SweetThe Smile of a Child (1911) with Blanche SweetFighting Blood (1911) with Blanche Sweet and Lionel BarrymoreOut from the Shadow (1911) with Blanche SweetThe Making of a Man (1911) with Blanche SweetHer Awakening (1911) with Mabel NormandThe Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch (1912) with Blanche SweetFriends (1912) with Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore and Harry CareyAn Unseen Enemy (1912) with Lilian GishThe New York Hat (1912) with Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Mae Marsh and Lillian GishDrink"s Lure (1913)Oil and Water (1913) with Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore and Harry CareyJudith of Bethulia (1914) with Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish and Dorothy GishStrongheart (1914) with Blanche Sweet, Lionel Barrymore and Alan HaleThe Avenging Conscience (1914) with Blanche Sweet and Henry B. WalthallThe Birth of a Nation (1915) with Lillian Gish, Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh and Raoul WalshIntolerance (1916)Broken Blossoms (1919) with Lillian GishWay Down East (1920) with Lillian GishOrphans of the Storm (1921) with Lillian Gish and Dorothy GishOne Exciting Night (1922) with Henry HullMammy"s Boy (1923) with Al JolsonAmerica (1924)The Sorrows of Satan (1926)Lady of the Pavements (1929) with Lupe Velez and William BoydD.W. Griffith"s "Abraham Lincoln" (1930) with Walter HustonSpouseEvelyn Baldwin (2 March 1936 - 1 November 1947) (divorced)Linda Arvidson (14 May 1906 - 2 March 1936) (divorced)TriviaHe has been called "the father of film technique", "the man who invented Hollywood" and "the Shakespeare of the screen".In 1920, he established United Artists with Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford.Interred at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard, Crestwood, Kentucky, USA.In 1975, the U.S. Postal Service honored Griffith with a postage stamp.15 December 1999: Declaring that Griffith "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes," The Directors Guild of America"s National Board - without membership consultation - announced it would rename the D.W. Griffith Award, the Guild"s highest honor. First given in 1953, its recipients included Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, John Huston, Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and Griffith"s friend Cecil B. DeMille.He produced and directed the first movie ever made in Hollywood, In Old California (1910) which was produced by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. It was rediscovered by Biograph and shown on the 6th of May 2004 at the 2004 Beverly Hills Film Festival attended by Mikhail Vartanov and President of Biograph Company Thomas R. Bond II. On the same day, a monument was erected near the site where the film was made (Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street) but was vandalized and stolen less than a year later.His first sound film was Abraham Lincoln (1930).He was said to be a imperious, humorless man.Was voted the 15th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 415-427. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.He tried to sell a story to The Edison Company. They hired him as an actor instead.He went from being a bit player to being the industry"s leading director in a period of only five years.The film America (1924) is regarded as a major turning point in his career. Its failure ended his tenure as the industry"s preeminent director.Same date of death, 21st of July, as the legendary Sergei ParajanovAfter The Birth of a Nation (1915) was released and criticized as being racist, Griffith was very hurt. He decided to make Intolerance: Love"s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) as a follow-up, to show how damaging and dangerous people"s intolerance can be.On May 26, 1918, he was elected president of the Motion Picture War Service Association, an organization charged with boosting war bond sales.Was named an Honorary Life Member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in 1938. The DGA award for best lifetime achievement was named for Griffith in 1953. The DGA National Board, without consulting its membership, decided in 1999 to rename the award due to the "intolerable racism" showcased in Griffith"s The Birth of a Nation (1915). The outcry against political correctness led the DGA in 2002 to announce that it would not rename the award, although it would keep a lifetime achievement going in its arsenal of kudos. Awarded for "distinguished achievement in motion picture direction," the directors honored include Cecil B. DeMille (the first recipient), John Ford, King Vidor, William Wyler, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.Was the first person, after Charles Chaplin"s special award at the first Academy Awards (Chaplin had had his nominations rescinded and placed out of competition), to win an honorary Academy Award. Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President Frank Capra thought it would be good publicity for the Academy, which was then structured as a company union, as the Academy was being boycotted by the trade union guilds and turnout at the 1936 Oscar ceremony was predicted to be low. The citation read: "For his distinguished creative achievements as director and producer and his invaluable initiative and lasting contributions to the progress of the motion picture arts."In his declining years, Griffith lived off the income from an annuity that he had invested in when he had been on top in Hollywood.Was first hired as a director, when the Biograph Company"s chief director fell ill.Began his career as a playwright, then moved to acting and finally (and famously) to directing.The Adventures of Dollie (1908), a Biograph Company release, was his directorial debut in 1908.After viewing The Birth of a Nation (1915) in the White House (it was the first film shown in the White House itself), President Woodrow Wilson remarked that it was "like writing history with lightning."Ironically, the release of The Birth of a Nation (1915) inspired many African-Americans to start making their own films in an attempt to counter the film"s depiction of them and to offer positive alternative images and stories of the African-American people.The NAACP attempted to have The Birth of a Nation (1915) banned. After that effort failed, they then attempted to have some of the film"s more extreme scenes censored.Charles Chaplin called him "the teacher of us all"Was an ardent Jeffersonian.Pioneered the technique of parallel editing, which he used extensively after 1909.Lillian Gish called him "the father of film" (although Griffith considered her a close friend, she had so much respect for him that she never referred to him as other than "Mr. Griffith", even long after Griffith died).Although Griffith was thought by many to be a bigot and racist, he detested the manner in which whites and the "white man"s government" treated and oppressed Native Americans. This was a theme that he explored in several of his early short films, most notably in The Red Man"s View (1909) and Ramona (1910), which are very strong denouncements of the oppression of Native Americans by whites.Several filming innovations belong solely to Griffith (some of which he invented during his collaboration with G. W. "Billy" Bitzer at "Biograph" Company . They include the flashback, the iris shot, the mask, the systematic use of the soft focus shot and the split screen.He directed more than 450 films for the "Biograph Company" . Amazingly, 440 of them still survive, accounting for a large portion the "Biograph Company" shorts that survive.By 1909 he was turning out 2 to 3 films per week.After the 1915 release of The Birth of a Nation (1915), riots broke out in several black neighborhoods across the country.His movie The Birth of a Nation (1915) is generally considered as the birth of modern American cinema.Started to write an autobiography, but never finished it. [1926]Very first person to use a close-up in a movie.Is portrayed by Charles Dance in Good Morning, Babylon (1987) and by Colm Feore in And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) (TV)Ironically, Griffith produced and directed the Biograph Company film The Rose of Kentucky (1911), which showed the Ku Klux Klan as villainous, a sharp contrast to The Birth of a Nation (1915) made 4 years later, in which the KKK was portrayed in a favorable light.Personal Quotes"A film without a message is just a waste of time," quoted by G.W. Bitzer in "Billy Bitzer: His Story.""Move these 10,000 horses a trifle to the right, and that mob out there three feet forward." 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.""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 medium the world has known.""Actors should never be important. Only directors should have power and place.""Everything went downhill after Lillian [Gish] left me."Said that silent films were associated with "the good old American faculty of wanting to be shown things.""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.""Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.""Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? What art? What science?"
(See more on en.wikipedia.org)
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith | birthdate = January 22, 1875(1875-01-22) | location = Though United Artists survived as a company, Griffith"s association with it was short-lived, and while some of his later films did well at the box office, commercial success often eluded him. Features from this period include Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921) and America (1924). Griffith made only two sound films, Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither was successful, and he never made another film. For the last seventeen years of his life he lived as a virtual hermit in Los Angeles. He died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1948 on his way to a Hollywood hospital from the Knickerbocker Hotel where he had been living alone.
Achievements
D. W. Griffith has been called the father of film grammar. Few scholars still hold that his "innovations" really began with him, but Griffith was a key figure in establishing the set of codes that have become the universal backbone of film language. He was particularly influential in popularizing "cross-cutting"—using film editing to alternate between different events occurring at the same time—in order to build suspense. That being said, he still used many elements from the "primitive" style of movie-making that predated classical Hollywood"s continuity system, such as frontal staging, exaggerated gestures, minimal camera movement, and an absence of point of view shots. Some claim, too, that he "invented" the close-up shot.
Credit for Griffith"s cinematic innovations must be shared with his cameraman of many years, Billy Bitzer. In addition, he himself credited the legendary silent star Lillian Gish, who appeared in several of his films, with creating a new style of acting for the cinema.ControversyGriffith was a highly controversial figure. Immensely popular at the time of its release, his film The Birth of a Nation (1915), based on the novel and play The Clansman by Thomas W. Dixon, was a white supremacist interpretation of history, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People attempted to have it banned. After that effort failed, they attempted to have some of the film"s more disagreeable scenes censored. The scenes in question depict derogatory stereotypes of blacks, and white members of the Ku Klux Klan killing blacks to protect white women, which is portrayed as favorable toward the Ku Klux Klan members. Griffith did also say that he made the film with the intention to show how the Scalawags and Carpetbaggers began to rule as tyrants with President Lincoln out of the picture. Griffith did also try to denounce prejudice in his next film Intolerance by showing how slavery was wrong because the Babylonians tried to make some slaves out of their people who didn"t believe in some of the main traditional gods. According to Lillian Gish in her autobiography, The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me, Griffith towards the end of his life expressed an interest in making a film that would be a tribute to African-Americans, but he never got the chance to make that film.LegacyStamp issued by the United States Postal Service commemorating D. W. Griffith.Motion picture legend Charles Chaplin called Griffith "The Teacher Of Us All". This sentiment was widely shared. Filmmakers as diverse as John Ford and Orson Welles have spoken of their respect for the director of Intolerance. Whether or not he actually invented new techniques in film grammar, he seems to have been among the first to understand how these techniques could be used to create an expressive language. In early shorts such as Biograph"s The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) which was the first "Gangster film", we can see how Griffith"s attention to camera placement and lighting heighten mood and tension. In making Intolerance the director opened up new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative.Griffith was honored on a 10-cent postage stamp by the United States issued May 5, 1975.In 1953, the Directors Guild of America instituted the D.W. Griffith Award, its highest honor. Its recipients included Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, John Huston, Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and Griffith"s friend Cecil B. DeMille. On 15 December 1999, however, DGA President Jack Shea and the DGA National Board—without membership consultation (though unnecessary according to DGA"s regulations)—announced that the award would be renamed the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award because Griffith"s film The Birth of a Nation had "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes". The following living recipients of the award agreed with the guild"s decision: Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Lumet.D.W. Griffith has five films preserved in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". These films are 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).Selected filmographyMoney Mad (1908)Balked at the Altar (1908)Romance of a Jewess (1908) with Florence LawrenceResurrection (1909)The Country Doctor (1909) with Florence Lawrence and Mary PickfordIn Old California (1910) with Henry B. WalthallIn the Border States (1910) with Henry B. WalthallThe Lonedale Operator (1911) with Blanche SweetThe Smile of a Child (1911) with Blanche SweetFighting Blood (1911) with Blanche Sweet and Lionel BarrymoreOut from the Shadow (1911) with Blanche SweetThe Making of a Man (1911) with Blanche SweetHer Awakening (1911) with Mabel NormandThe Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch (1912) with Blanche SweetFriends (1912) with Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore and Harry CareyAn Unseen Enemy (1912) with Lilian GishThe New York Hat (1912) with Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Mae Marsh and Lillian GishDrink"s Lure (1913)Oil and Water (1913) with Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore and Harry CareyJudith of Bethulia (1914) with Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish and Dorothy GishStrongheart (1914) with Blanche Sweet, Lionel Barrymore and Alan HaleThe Avenging Conscience (1914) with Blanche Sweet and Henry B. WalthallThe Birth of a Nation (1915) with Lillian Gish, Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh and Raoul WalshIntolerance (1916)Broken Blossoms (1919) with Lillian GishWay Down East (1920) with Lillian GishOrphans of the Storm (1921) with Lillian Gish and Dorothy GishOne Exciting Night (1922) with Henry HullMammy"s Boy (1923) with Al JolsonAmerica (1924)The Sorrows of Satan (1926)Lady of the Pavements (1929) with Lupe Velez and William BoydD.W. Griffith"s "Abraham Lincoln" (1930) with Walter HustonSpouseEvelyn Baldwin (2 March 1936 - 1 November 1947) (divorced)Linda Arvidson (14 May 1906 - 2 March 1936) (divorced)TriviaHe has been called "the father of film technique", "the man who invented Hollywood" and "the Shakespeare of the screen".In 1920, he established United Artists with Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford.Interred at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard, Crestwood, Kentucky, USA.In 1975, the U.S. Postal Service honored Griffith with a postage stamp.15 December 1999: Declaring that Griffith "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes," The Directors Guild of America"s National Board - without membership consultation - announced it would rename the D.W. Griffith Award, the Guild"s highest honor. First given in 1953, its recipients included Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, John Huston, Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and Griffith"s friend Cecil B. DeMille.He produced and directed the first movie ever made in Hollywood, In Old California (1910) which was produced by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. It was rediscovered by Biograph and shown on the 6th of May 2004 at the 2004 Beverly Hills Film Festival attended by Mikhail Vartanov and President of Biograph Company Thomas R. Bond II. On the same day, a monument was erected near the site where the film was made (Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street) but was vandalized and stolen less than a year later.His first sound film was Abraham Lincoln (1930).He was said to be a imperious, humorless man.Was voted the 15th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 415-427. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.He tried to sell a story to The Edison Company. They hired him as an actor instead.He went from being a bit player to being the industry"s leading director in a period of only five years.The film America (1924) is regarded as a major turning point in his career. Its failure ended his tenure as the industry"s preeminent director.Same date of death, 21st of July, as the legendary Sergei ParajanovAfter The Birth of a Nation (1915) was released and criticized as being racist, Griffith was very hurt. He decided to make Intolerance: Love"s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) as a follow-up, to show how damaging and dangerous people"s intolerance can be.On May 26, 1918, he was elected president of the Motion Picture War Service Association, an organization charged with boosting war bond sales.Was named an Honorary Life Member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in 1938. The DGA award for best lifetime achievement was named for Griffith in 1953. The DGA National Board, without consulting its membership, decided in 1999 to rename the award due to the "intolerable racism" showcased in Griffith"s The Birth of a Nation (1915). The outcry against political correctness led the DGA in 2002 to announce that it would not rename the award, although it would keep a lifetime achievement going in its arsenal of kudos. Awarded for "distinguished achievement in motion picture direction," the directors honored include Cecil B. DeMille (the first recipient), John Ford, King Vidor, William Wyler, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.Was the first person, after Charles Chaplin"s special award at the first Academy Awards (Chaplin had had his nominations rescinded and placed out of competition), to win an honorary Academy Award. Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President Frank Capra thought it would be good publicity for the Academy, which was then structured as a company union, as the Academy was being boycotted by the trade union guilds and turnout at the 1936 Oscar ceremony was predicted to be low. The citation read: "For his distinguished creative achievements as director and producer and his invaluable initiative and lasting contributions to the progress of the motion picture arts."In his declining years, Griffith lived off the income from an annuity that he had invested in when he had been on top in Hollywood.Was first hired as a director, when the Biograph Company"s chief director fell ill.Began his career as a playwright, then moved to acting and finally (and famously) to directing.The Adventures of Dollie (1908), a Biograph Company release, was his directorial debut in 1908.After viewing The Birth of a Nation (1915) in the White House (it was the first film shown in the White House itself), President Woodrow Wilson remarked that it was "like writing history with lightning."Ironically, the release of The Birth of a Nation (1915) inspired many African-Americans to start making their own films in an attempt to counter the film"s depiction of them and to offer positive alternative images and stories of the African-American people.The NAACP attempted to have The Birth of a Nation (1915) banned. After that effort failed, they then attempted to have some of the film"s more extreme scenes censored.Charles Chaplin called him "the teacher of us all"Was an ardent Jeffersonian.Pioneered the technique of parallel editing, which he used extensively after 1909.Lillian Gish called him "the father of film" (although Griffith considered her a close friend, she had so much respect for him that she never referred to him as other than "Mr. Griffith", even long after Griffith died).Although Griffith was thought by many to be a bigot and racist, he detested the manner in which whites and the "white man"s government" treated and oppressed Native Americans. This was a theme that he explored in several of his early short films, most notably in The Red Man"s View (1909) and Ramona (1910), which are very strong denouncements of the oppression of Native Americans by whites.Several filming innovations belong solely to Griffith (some of which he invented during his collaboration with G. W. "Billy" Bitzer at "Biograph" Company . They include the flashback, the iris shot, the mask, the systematic use of the soft focus shot and the split screen.He directed more than 450 films for the "Biograph Company" . Amazingly, 440 of them still survive, accounting for a large portion the "Biograph Company" shorts that survive.By 1909 he was turning out 2 to 3 films per week.After the 1915 release of The Birth of a Nation (1915), riots broke out in several black neighborhoods across the country.His movie The Birth of a Nation (1915) is generally considered as the birth of modern American cinema.Started to write an autobiography, but never finished it. [1926]Very first person to use a close-up in a movie.Is portrayed by Charles Dance in Good Morning, Babylon (1987) and by Colm Feore in And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) (TV)Ironically, Griffith produced and directed the Biograph Company film The Rose of Kentucky (1911), which showed the Ku Klux Klan as villainous, a sharp contrast to The Birth of a Nation (1915) made 4 years later, in which the KKK was portrayed in a favorable light.Personal Quotes"A film without a message is just a waste of time," quoted by G.W. Bitzer in "Billy Bitzer: His Story.""Move these 10,000 horses a trifle to the right, and that mob out there three feet forward." 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.""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 medium the world has known.""Actors should never be important. Only directors should have power and place.""Everything went downhill after Lillian [Gish] left me."Said that silent films were associated with "the good old American faculty of wanting to be shown things.""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.""Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.""Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? What art? What science?"