Sidney Olcott

Sidney Olcott, 1914. Photo by Robert Grau (1858–1916)

Sidney Olcott (actually John Sidney Alcott ; born September 20, 1873 in Toronto , Ontario , † December 16, 1949 in Hollywood , Los Angeles , California ) was a Canadian film producer, director, actor and screenwriter.

Life

Olcott went to New York with the intention of becoming an actor , where he appeared in the theater until 1904. He then worked as an actor and later also a director at the Biograph Company, where he made it to general manager .

In 1907 Frank Marion and Samuel Long founded the Kalem Company, financially supported by George Kleine, and hired Olcott for $ 10 per film. According to his contract, he should shoot at least one one-reeler per week. One of his first productions for Kalem was the first film adaptation of Ben Hur , which focused on the chariot race.

In 1910, Sidney Olcott made Kalem Studios the first US film company to direct feature films on location outside the United States. Even of Irish descent and with the knowledge of a large audience of Irish descent in America, Olcott went to Ireland and made the film A Lad from Old Ireland . By the outbreak of World War I, more than a dozen other films by Olcott followed in Ireland.

Inspired by their experiences in Ireland, the film crew, led by Olcott, went to Egypt and Palestine to record the Jesus film From the Manger to the Cross (1912) . The film turned out to be a financial success for the Kalem Company and was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1998.

Despite the success with other films, the managing directors of Kalem Studios refused to raise Olcott's salary above the US $ 150 that he was earning weekly at the time, and the director left Kalem in 1914, whose studios were finally taken over by Vitagraph in 1916 .

Olcott was a founding member of the East Coast branch of the Motion Picture Directors Association , a forerunner of today's Directors Guild of America . In the mid-1910s, he went to Hollywood and directed films for various production companies. For and with Mary Pickford he directed Poor Little Peppina (1916), with Rudolph Valentino Monsieur Beaucaire (1924). His last film was made in 1927.

Since 1915 he was married to the actress Valentine Grant , she died nine months before him. Sidney Olcott died in Hollywood in the house of his friend, director and actor Robert G. Vignola .

Filmography

as a director

• 1907: The Wooing of Miles Standish
• 1907: Ben Hur
• 1908: David and Goliath
• 1908: Florida Crackers
• 1908: Hannah Dustin
• 1908: Henry Hudson
• 1908: The Days of '61
• 1908: The Scarlet Letter
• 1908: Way Down East
• 1909: A Brother's Wrong
• 1909: A Florida Feud
• 1909: Dora
• 1909: Hiram's Bride
• 1909: Out of Work
• 1909: Queen of the Quarry
• 1909: Rally 'Round the Flag
• 1909: The Cardboard Baby
• 1909: The Cattle Thieves
• 1909: The Conspirators
• 1909: The Cracker's Bride
• 1909: The Geisha Who Saved Japan
• 1909: The Girl Scout
• 1909: The Girl Spy
• 1909: The Governor's Daughter
• 1909: The Hand-Organ Man
• 1909: The Law of the Mountains
• 1909: The Man and the Girl
• 1909: The Mystery of the 'Sleeper' Trunk
• 1909: The Octoroon
• 1909: The Old Soldier's Story
• 1909: The Pay Car
• 1909: The Seminole's Vengeance
• 1909: The Tom-Boy
• 1909: The Winning Boat
• 1910: The Feud
• 1910: The Stepmother
• 1910: A Colonial Belle
• 1910: A Lad from Old Ireland
• 1910: Confederate Spy
• 1910: For a Woman's Honor
• 1910: Her Indian Mother
• 1910: Her Soldier Sweetheart
• 1910: Seth's Temptation
• 1910: The Aztec Sacrifice
• 1910: The Bravest Girl in the South
• 1910: The Canadian Moonshiners
• 1910: The Cliff Dwellers
• 1910: The Conspiracy of Pontiac
• 1910: The Cow Puncher's Sweetheart
• 1910: The Deacon's Daughter
• 1910: The Education of Elizabeth
• 1910: The Egret Hunter
• 1910: The Engineer's Sweetheart
• 1910: The Further Adventures of the Girl Spy
• 1910: The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg
• 1910: The Heart of Edna Leslie
• 1910: The Indian Scout's Vengeance
• 1910: The Little Spreewald Maiden
• 1910: The Miser's Child
• 1910: The Perversity of Fate
• 1910: The Romance of a Trained Nurse
• 1910: The Sacred Turquoise of the Zuni
• 1910: The Seminole Halfbreeds
• 1910: The Seminole's Trust
• 1910: The Stranger
• 1910: The Wanderers
• 1911: Tangled Lives
• 1911: Molly Pitcher
• 1911: The Colleen Bawn
• 1911: A Saw Mill Hero
• 1911: An Irish Honeymoon
• 1911: Arrah-Na-Pogue
• 1911: By a Woman's Wit
• 1911: For Love of an Enemy
• 1911: Her Chum's Brother
• 1911: In Blossom Time
• 1911: In Old Florida
• 1911: Last Day of School
• 1911: Losing to Win
• 1911: Railroad Raiders of '62
• 1911: Robbie and the Redskins
• 1911: Rory O'More
• 1911: Sailor Jack's Reformation
• 1911: The Carnival
• 1911: The Fiddle's Requiem
• 1911: The Fishermaid of Ballydavid
• 1911: The Franciscan Friars of Killarney, Ireland
• 1911: The Lass Who Couldn't Forget
• 1911: The Love of Summer Morn
• 1911: The Open Road
• 1911: When the Dead Return
• 1911: When Two Hearts Are Won
• 1912: The Vagabonds
• 1912: A Prisoner of the Harem
• 1912: Along the River Nile
• 1912: Ancient Temples of Egypt
• 1912: Captain Rivera's Reward
• 1912: Captured by Bedouins
• 1912: Conway, the Kerry Dancer
• 1912: Down Through the Ages
• 1912: Dust of the Desert
• 1912: Far from Erin's Isle
• 1912: From the Manger to the Cross
• 1912: His Mother
• 1912: Ireland, the Oppressed
• 1912: Luxor, Egypt
• 1912: Making Photoplays in Egypt
• 1912: Missionaries in Darkest Africa
• 1912: My Hielan 'Lassie
• 1912: Shaun Rhue
• 1912: The Darling of the CSA
• 1912: The Fighting Dervishes of the Desert
• 1912: The Kerry Gow
• 1912: The Mayor from Ireland
• 1912: The O'Kalems' Visit to Killarney
• 1912: The O'Neill
• 1912: The Poacher's Pardon
• 1912: The Shaughraun
• 1912: The Vengeance Mark
• 1912: Tragedy of the Desert
• 1912: Winning a Widow
• 1912: You Remember Ellen
• 1913: A Daughter of the Confederacy
• 1913: Uncle Tom's Cabin
• 1913: In the Clutches of the Ku Klux Klan
• 1913: In the Power of a Hypnotist
• 1913: Lady Peggy's Escape
• 1913: Perils of the Sea
• 1913: The Octoroon
• 1913: The Wives of Jamestown
• 1913: When Men Hate
• 1914: Captured by Mexicans
• 1914: Come Back to Erin
• 1914: For Ireland's Sake
• 1914: In the Hands of the Brute
• 1914: The Eye of the Government
• 1914: The Idle Rich
• 1914: The Little Rebel
• 1914: The Mother of Men
• 1914: Through the Fires of Temptation
• 1914: Tricking the Government
• 1914: When Men Would Kill
• 1915: The Taint
• 1915: All for Old Ireland
• 1915: Famous Men of Today
• 1915: Famous Rulers of the World
• 1915: Great Americans Past and Present
• 1915: Madame Butterfly
• 1915: Nan o 'the Backwoods
• 1915: New York and Its People
• 1915: The Gap of Dunloe
• 1915: The Ghost of Twisted Oaks
• 1915: The Moth and the Flame
• 1915: The Seven Sisters
• 1916: Diplomacy
• 1916: The Smugglers
• 1916: My Lady Incog.
• 1916: Poor Little Peppina
• 1916: The Daughter of MacGregor
• 1916: The Innocent Lie
• 1918: The Belgian
• 1919: Marriage for Convenience
• 1920: Scratch My Back
• 1921: God's Country and the Law
• 1921: Pardon My French
• 1921: The Right Way
• 1922: Timothy's Quest
• 1923: Little Old New York
• 1923: The Green Goddess
• 1924: The Only Woman
• 1924: Monsieur Beaucaire, the royal barber (Monsieur Beaucaire)
• 1924: The Humming Bird
• 1925: Mariposa, the dancer (The Charmer)
• 1925: Not So Long Ago
• 1925: Salome of the Tenements
• 1925: The Best People
• 1926: Ranson's Folly
• 1926: The Amateur Gentleman
• 1926: The White Black Sheep
• 1927: The Claw

as an actor

• 1906: The Village Cutup
• 1907: Pony Express
• 1909: The Old Soldier's Story
• 1909: The Seminole's Vengeance
• 1909: Tis an Ill Wind That Blows No Good
• 1910: A Lad from Old Ireland
• 1910: The Deacon's Daughter
• 1910: The Engineer's Sweetheart
• 1910: The Little Spreewald Maiden
• 1911: An Irish Honeymoon
• 1911: Arrah-Na-Pogue
• 1911: Railroad Raiders of '62
• 1911: The Fiddle's Requiem
• 1911: The Love of Summer Morn
• 1911: The Colleen Bawn
• 1912: From the Manger to the Cross
• 1912: Ireland, the Oppressed
• 1912: The Kerry Gow
• 1912: The O'Neill
• 1912: The Shaughraun
• 1913: In the Power of a Hypnotist
• 1913: Lady Peggy's Escape
• 1914: For Ireland's Sake
• 1914: The Eye of the Government
• 1914: The Idle Rich
• 1914: The Mother of Men
• 1915: All for Old Ireland
• 1915: The Irish in America

Web links

• Sidney Olcott in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Olcott in Ireland (with photo) (English; PDF file; 922 kB)
• Sidney Olcott, le premier oeil (French)