Griffith, D(avid Lewelyn) W(ark) 1875-1948
US pioneer film director

Born in Floydsfork, Kentucky, he began as an actor and short-story writer, before turning to the film industry, learning his trade in hundreds of silent films. Using technical innovations such as close-ups, fade-outs, flashbacks and moving cameras, he did much to create the conventions of modern cinematic art. His first great film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), was both hailed as a masterpiece for its subtlety and dramatic force and bitterly criticized by African-American groups appalled by its racism. Subsequent films include his epic Intolerance (1916) and his war film Hearts of the World (1918), which incorporated battle scenes actually filmed at the front. He discovered many stars, including Lillian Gish, who appeared in his films Broken Blossoms (1919) and Orphans of the Storm (1922).

Bibliography: Robert M Henderson, D W Griffith: His Life and Work (1972)