Pioneer director, screenwriter, actor, innovator.

* 5.1.1875, Sheffield, England - 1941

In the US from the age of 10, he first worked as a journalist-illustrator for the New York World. Interviewing Thomas Alva Edison, he so impressed the inventor with his drawings that Edison suggested he allow some of them to be photographed by the Kinetograph camera. The result was a short film, BLACKTON, THE EVENING WORLD CARTOONIST (1896). Fascinated by the new medium, Blackton bought a Kinetoscope from Edison, went into partnership with a friend, Albert E. Smith, and exhibited films with it.

In 1897 they added a third partner, William T. Rock, and the young partners converted the projector into a motion-picture camera and established the Vitagraph Company. They started film production in an open-air studio on the roof of the Morse Building at 140 Nassau Street, New York City. Their first film, THE BURGLAR ON THE ROOF (1898), was about 50 feet long, with Blackton playing the leading role. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, they produced TEARING DOWN THE SPANISH FLAG (1898), probably the world's first propaganda film. Smith operated the camera and Blackton was again the actor, tearing down the Spanish flag and raising the Stars and Stripes to the top of a flagpole. 

Blackton and his partners continued filming fake and real news events, ranging from Spanish-American War footage to coverage of local fires and crimes in New York City. They constantly expanded their activities and soon moved into the world's first glass-enclosed studios, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Blackton directed most of the production of this early period, including such story films as A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE (1903) and RAFFLES, THE AMATEUR CRACKSMAN (1905), two milestones in the development of the American feature film. 

Blackton pioneered the single-frame (one turn, one picture) technique in cinema animation, turning out a number of animated cartoons between 1906 and 1910, including the immensely successful HUMOROUS PHASES OF A FUNNY FACE (1906), THE HAUNTED HOTEL (1906), and THE MAGIC FOUNTAIN PEN (1907). He also introduced (in 1908, before Griffith) the close shot, a camera position between the close-up and the medium shot. Like Griffith, he emphasized film editing, setting his films apart from most of the products of this very early period. His film editing was especially noteworthy in his SCENES OF TRUE LIFE series, a realistic group of films he directed beginning in 1908.

Next to Griffith, Blackton was probably the most innovative and creative force in the development of the motion picture art, not only as the director of hundreds of films but also as organizer, , actor, and animator. He pioneered the production of two- and three-reel comedies and starred in one such series as a character called Happy Hooligan. Beginning in 1908, he also pioneered the American production of distinguished stage adaptations, including many Shakespeare plays and historical re-creations. When the output at Vitagraph became too heavy for one man to handle, he initiated the system (later to be adopted by Ince) of overseeing the work of several underling directors as production supervisor. In 1917 he left active work with Vitagraph and began independent productions. During WWI, he directed and produced a series of patriotic propaganda films, the most famous of which, and which he also wrote, was THE BATTLE CRY OF PEACE (1915)/A CALL TO ARMS AGAINST WAR, based on a hypothetical attack on New York City by a foreign invader.

Blackton later went to England, where he directed a number of costume pageants, two of them experiments in color. When Vitagraph was absorbed by Warner Bros. in 1926, Blackton retired. He lost his entire fortune in the 1929 crash and was forced to seek work on a government project in California. Later he was hired as director of production at the Anglo-American Film Company, where he worked until his death.

Between 1900 and 1915, Blackton was president of the Vitaphone Company, a manufacturer of record players. In 1915 he organized and became president of the Motion Picture Board of Trade, later known as the Association of Motion Picture s and Distributors of America. He was also publisher and  of Motion Picture Magazine, one of America's first film-fan publications.

Filmografie van  J. Stuart Blackton

(cursief gedrukte films als producent de anderen als regisseur)

1898   THE BURGLAR ON THE ROOF

1898   TEARING DOWN THE SPANISH FLAG        

1899   SPOT FILMING OF WINDSOR HOTEL FIRE IN NEW YORK  

1903   A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE  

1905   RAFFLES THE AMATEUR CRACKSMAN       

1906   THE HAUNTED HOTEL        

1906   HUMOROUS PHASES OF A FUNNY FACE    

1906   A MODERN OLIVER TWIST  

1906   THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

1907   A CURIOUS DREAM   

1907   THE MAGIC FOUNTAIN PEN 

1908   ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA    

1908   BARBARA FRIETCHIE 

1908   JULIUS CAESAR        

1908   MACBETH     

1908   THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 

1908   THE NEW STENOGRAPHER   

1908   RICHARD III

1908   ROMEO AND JULIET/ROMEO E GIULIETTA  

1908   SALOME       

1908   THE VIKING'S DAUGHTER    

1909   KING LEAR    

1909   LES MISÉRABLES     

1909   THE LIFE OF MOSES

1909   MAN OF DESTINY    

1909   A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM      

1909   OLIVER TWIST        

1909   RUY BLAS     

1909   SAUL AND DAVID     

1909   SMOKE FAIRY

1909   WASHINGTON UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG

1910   ELEKTRA      

1910   A MODERN CINDERELLA      

1910   UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

1912   AS YOU LIKE IT        co-director— with Young

1912   CARDINAL WOLSEY   co-director— with Lawrence Trimble

1912   THE LADY OF THE LAKE     

1912   LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS   co-director— with James Young

1912   THE TWO PORTRAITS        

1913   LOVE'S SUNSET       

1914   THE CHRISTIAN       

1914   LOVE LUCK AND GASOLINE                     screenwriter

1915   THE BATTLE CRY OF PEACE/A CALL TO ARMS AGAINST WAR

         , co-director— with Wilfrid North

1917   THE JUDGMENT HOUSE      

1917   WOMANHOOD co-director— with William Earle

1918   THE COMMON CAUSE         

1918   MISSING      

1918   SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY      

1918   WORLD FOR SALE    

1919   DAWN

1919   A HOUSE DIVIDED    

1919   LIFE'S GREATEST PROBLEM 

1919   THE LITTLEST SCOUT        

1919   THE MOONSHINE TRAIL      

1919   MY HUSBAND'S OTHER WIFE         

1920   THE BLOOD BARRIER

1920   FORBIDDEN VALLEY  

1920   THE HOUSE OF THE TOLLING BELL  director

1920   PASSERS-BY 

1920   RESPECT BY PROXY 

1922   THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURE

1922   A GYPSY CAVALIER  

1923   ON THE BANKS OF THE WABASH   

1923   THE VIRGIN QUEEN  

1924   BEHOLD THIS WOMAN        

1924   THE BELOVED BRUTE

1924   BETWEEN FRIENDS  

1924   THE CLEAN HEART   

1924   LET NOT MAN PUT ASUNDER        

1925   THE HAPPY WARRIOR         

1925   THE REDEEMING SIN

1925   TIDES OF PASSION  

1926   BRIDE OF THE STORM        

1926   THE GILDED HIGHWAY       

1926   HELL-BENT FOR HEAVEN     

1926   THE PASSIONATE QUEST