Thomas A. Edison

Biography

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, t…

Movies & TV Shows

1. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019) — Self (archive footage)
2. Naqoyqatsi (2002) — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
3. History 101 (2020) — Self (archive footage)
4. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019) — Self (voice) (archive footage)
5. The Extraordinary Voyage (2011) — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
6. Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory (1897)
7. Horizon (1964) — Self
8. Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982) — Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
9. Murnau, Borzage and Fox (2008) — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
10. Edison (2015) — Himself (archive footage)
11. The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America (1995) — Self (archive footage)
12. Edison: The Invention of the Movies (2005) — Himself (archive footage)
13. Okay for Sound (1946)
14. The Film That Was Lost (1942) — Self (archive footage)
15. MGM Parade (1955) — Self
16. A Day with Thomas A. Edison (1922) — Self
17. The Golden Twenties (1950) — Self (archive footage)
18. Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists (1998) — Self (archive footage)
19. Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma (1978) — Self (archive footage)
20. Meeting of the Motion Pictures Patents Company (1909) — Himself
21. The Crash of 1929 (1990) — Self (archive footage)
22. Guests at the Presentation of Kodacolor at the Home of Mr. George Eastman, Rochester, N.Y. (1928)
23. EQUITY 6928 — Self (Archive)
24. The Wizard Who Spat on the Floor (1972) — Himself (Archival Footage)

Directed

1. The Comet (1910) — Director