Thomas A. Edison

Production Feb 11, 1847 Oct 18, 1931 (aged 84) Milan, Ohio, USA

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison was raised in the American Midwest; early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanic laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. He was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 of the complications of diabetes.

24 Acting Credits

67 Crew Credits

Thomas A. Edison

Acting

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Naqoyqatsi

History 101

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound

The Extraordinary Voyage

Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory

Horizon

Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter

Murnau, Borzage and Fox

Edison

The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America

Edison: The Invention of the Movies

The Film That Was Lost

Okay for Sound

A Day with Thomas A. Edison

The Golden Twenties

Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists

Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma

MGM Parade

Meeting of the Motion Pictures Patents Company

The Crash of 1929

Guests at the Presentation of Kodacolor at the Home of Mr. George Eastman, Rochester, N.Y.

EQUITY 6928

The Wizard Who Spat on the Floor

Crew

Frankenstein

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

Dickson Experimental Sound Film

Blacksmithing Scene

Electrocuting an Elephant

Annie Oakley

Corbett and Courtney Before the Kinetograph

Sioux Ghost Dance

Pan-American Exposition by Night

President McKinley Taking the Oath

Imperial Japanese Dance

A Trip to Mars