D.W. Griffith

Introduction
Early life and influences
The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Lillian Gish as Elsie Stoneman and Henry B. Walthall as Colonel Ben Cameron in period costume, with Walthall holding a rifle, in a scene from The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Black-and-white scene from The Birth of a Nation (1915) showing actors in Ku Klux Klan costumes on horseback charging down a street, with armed men fleeing in the foreground.

Black-and-white close-up of a man's face framed by a small barred window in a metal door, from the silent film Intolerance (1916).

The founding of United Artists Corporation

At a Glance

D. W. Griffith summary

Related Questions

How did Billy Bitzer contribute to D.W. Griffith’s filmmaking?
How did D.W. Griffith re-release parts of Intolerance after withdrawing the original film?
How did D.W. Griffith use moving-camera shots in his films?
How did Intolerance use cross-cutting to connect stories from different time periods?
How did The Birth of a Nation portray the Ku Klux Klan?
How did cross-cutting create suspense in D.W. Griffith’s films?
How did expressive lighting create mood in D.W. Griffith’s films?
How did fade-ins and fade-outs help tell stories in silent films?
How did protests against The Birth of a Nation affect the civil rights movement in Boston?
How long did most of D.W. Griffith’s one-reel Biograph films run?
How many separate shots did The Birth of a Nation contain?
How was Intolerance connected to the controversy over The Birth of a Nation?
What historical periods are depicted in The Birth of a Nation?
What was the “Griffith last-minute rescue” editing technique?
When did D.W. Griffith begin working in the motion-picture industry?
Where was D.W. Griffith born?
Which D.W. Griffith film first used parallel editing between two storylines?
Which D.W. Griffith film was his first sound film?
Which film allowed D.W. Griffith to establish his studio in Mamaroneck, New York?
Which film company did D.W. Griffith join after leaving Biograph?
Which four historical stories are interwoven in Intolerance?
Which future movie stars did D.W. Griffith introduce in Biograph films?
Which jobs did D.W. Griffith hold before becoming an actor and filmmaker?
Which novel did D.W. Griffith adapt for The Birth of a Nation?
Which pamphlet did D.W. Griffith publish in response to criticism of The Birth of a Nation?
Which two families are followed in The Birth of a Nation?
Which writers influenced D.W. Griffith during his childhood?
Who were D.W. Griffith’s partners in founding United Artists?
Why did D.W. Griffith begin making longer films after directing one-reelers?
Why did D.W. Griffith leave the Biograph Company after making Judith of Bethulia?
Why did D.W. Griffith oppose film censorship after the release of The Birth of a Nation?
Why did Intolerance fail at the box office despite its technical achievements?
Why did Intolerance influence filmmakers in the Soviet Union?
Why did civil rights advocates protest The Birth of a Nation?
Why was The Birth of a Nation censored or banned in some American cities and states?
Why were the sets for the Babylon sequence in Intolerance important in film history?
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External Websites

African American Registry - D. W. Griffith, Film Director born
Senses of cinema - Biography of D.W. Griffith
LiveAbout - Biography of D.W. Griffith, Director of 'Birth of a Nation'
California State University, Sacramento - D.W. Griffith as the ï¿½Father of American Filmï¿½
PBS - American Masters - D.W. Griffith (1875-1948)

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

D.W. Griffith - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

D.W. Griffith

American director

Also known as: David Wark Griffith

Written by

Robert M. Henderson

Chief, General Library and Museum of the Performing Arts, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, New York City. Author of D.W. Griffith, His Life and Times and others.

Robert M. Henderson

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

D.W. Griffith (born January 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Kentucky, U.S.—died July 23, 1948, Hollywood, California) was a pioneer American motion-picture director credited with developing many of the basic techniques of filmmaking, in such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and The Struggle (1931). (Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) D.W. Griffith, the son of Jacob Griffith, a...

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