Sidney Olcott was a film director in the two decades leading up to the talkies. He began his career on the east coast in 1904 as an actor with Mutoscope and then became general manager at Biograph. In 1910, working with the Kalem film company, he travelled to Country Cork, Ireland and was involved in the making of The Lad From Old Ireland, which is thought to be both the first American fiction film made outside the Americas and the first fiction film made in Ireland. Over the next several summers, Olcott, and scenarist and actor Gene Gauntier produced just under 30 films. Olcott also travelled to Palestine for From the Manger to the Cross (1912). In Hollywood he made movies with some of the biggest stars of the silent era including Little Old New York, which starred Marion Davies, and The Green Goddess, which starred George Arlis. Olcott also directed Mary Pickford in a number of films including 1915’s Madame Butterfly. He is recognized as a pioneer director of Westerns. His doctor at the time of his death said Olcott had suffered for three years of thrombosis of the heart. Although he died in Hollywood, Sidney Olcott had let it be known that he wanted to be buried in Canada. His grave is in the Park Lawn Cemetery on Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario.
Features & TV Movies:
VR indicates Direct-to-Video Release
A Runaway Sleighbelle (1907)
The Dog Snatcher (1907)
Bowser’s House Cleaning (1907)
The Gentleman Farmer (1907)
A Hobo Hero (1907)
The Pony Express (1907)
The New Hired Girl (1907)
The Tenderfoot (1907)
Off for the Day (1907)
The Sea Wolf (1907)
The Parson’s Picnic (1907)
The Book Agent (1907)
A One Night Stand (1907)
Who’ll Do The Washing (1907)
Peggy’s Camping Party (1907)
The Wooing of Miles Standish (1907)
Nature Fakirs (1907)
The Amateur Detective (1907)
The Red Man’s Way (1907)
Chinese Slave Smuggling (1907)
The Spring Gun (1907)
Nathan Hale (1907)
The Goldbrick (1907)
It Was Mother-in-Law (1907)
The Rival Motorists (1907)
Bill Butt-in and the Burglar (1907)
Troubles of a Tramp (1907)
The Lost Mine (1907)
Woman Cruel Woman (1907)
A Dramatic Rhearsal (1907)
School Days (1907)
Ben Hur (1907)
Days of ’61 (1908)
Back to Farm (1908)
Mountainers (1908)
Dogs of Fashion (1908)
Quack Doctors (1908)
Under the Star Splanged Banner (1908)
Evangeline (1908)
The Stowanay (1908)
College Days (1908)
The Banan’Man (1908)
Henry Hudson (1908)
Way Down East (1908)
Washington at Valley Forge (1908)
The Scarlett Letter (1908)
Captain Kid (1908)
The Moonshiner’s Daughter (1908)
Night Riders (1908)
The Under Dog (1908)
Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1908)
Kidnapped for Hate (1908)
Dolly the Circus Queen (1908)
The White Squaw Man (1908)
The Man Hunt (1908)
Enoch Arden (1908)
Lady Audley’s Secret (1908)
Held by Bandits (1908)
The Little Madcap (1908)
Mrs Gunness, the Female Bluebeard (1908)
Dynamite Man (1908)
The Renegade (1908)
The New Hired Girl (1908)
A Gipsy Girl’s Love (1908)
The Walls of Sing Sing (1908)
The Girl Nihilist (1908)
Robin Hood (1908)
The Frontiersman’s Bride (1908)
As You Like It (1908)
The Great Yellowstone Park Hold Up (1908)
The Old Sleuth Detective (1908)
The Padrone (1908)
The Mystery of the Bride in White (1908)
The Girl I Left Behind Me (1908)
Caught in the Web (1908)
The Half Breed (1908)
Jerusalem in the Time of Christ (1908)
David and Goliath (1908)
Fire at Sea (1908)
Humpty Dumpty Circus (1908)
The Railroad Detective (1908)
Hannah Dustin (1908)
A Ragged Hero (1908)
Maggie, the Dock Rat (1908)
For Love of Country (1908)
The Molly Maguires (1908)
Red Cloud (1908)
The Trail of the White Man (1909)
A Florida Feud (1909)
The Girl at the Old Mill (1909)
The Octoroon (1909)
The Detectives of the Italian Bureau (1909)
The High Diver (1909)
Sporting Days in the South (1909)
The Making of a Champion Pugilist (1909)
The New Minister (1909)
The Old Soldier’s Story (1909)
The Seminomle’s Vengeance (1909)
The Crackers Bride (1909)
Hungry Hank’s Hallucination (1909)
The Mysterious Double (1909)
The Fish Pirates (1909)
The Orange Grower’s Daughter (1909)
The Northern Schoolmaster (1909)
The Artist and the Girl (1909)
Love’s Triumph (1909)
Good for Evil (1909)
The Girl Spy: An Incident of the Civil War (1909)
A Poor Wife’s Devotion (1909)
A Pig in a Poke (1909)
A Child of the Sea (1909)
The Omnibus Taxiclub (1909)
$5000 Reward (1909)
The Little Angel of Roaring Springs (1909)
The Mystic Swing (1909)
A Priest of the Wilderness (1909)
Mardi Gras in Havana (1909)
The Japanese Invasion (1909)
Famine in the Forest (1909)
A Soldier of US Army (1909)
The Escape from Andersonville (1909)
The Tom-Boy (1909)
Tickle Mary (1909)
Factory Girl (1909)
Traced by Kodak (1909)
Out of Work (1909)
The Queen of the Quarry (1909)
The Conspirators – An Incident of a South American Revolution (1909)
The Pay Car (1909)
Hiram’s Bride (1909)
The Story of a Rose (1909)
Winning a Diner (1909)
The Winning Boat (1909)
The Mystery of Sleeper Trunk (1909)
The Hand Organ Man (1909)
The Man and the Girl (1909)
A Brother’s Wrong (1909)
The Girl Scout (1909)
The Cattle Thieves (1909)
Dora (1909)
Pale Face’s Woing (1909)
The Governor’s Daughter (1909)
Judgement (1909)
The Geisha Who Saved Japan (1909)
Rally Roung the Flag (1909)
The Law of the Mountains (1909)
The Card Board Baby (1909)
A Slave to Drink (1909)
The Deacon’s Daughter (1910)
The Romance of a Trained Nurse (1910)
The Man Who Lost (1910)
The Step-Mother (1910)
The Confederate Spy (1910)
The Feud (1910)
The Fisherman’s Granddaughter (1910)
The Miser’s Child (1910)
The Girl Thief (1910)
Her Soldier Sweetheart (1910)
The Seminole’s Trust (1910)
The Girl and the Bandit (1910)
The Further Adventure of the Girl Spy (1910)
The Old Fiddler (1910)
The Forager (1910)
The Bravest Girl of the South (1910)
The Sacred Turquoise of the Zuni (1910)
The Love Romance of the Girl Spy (1910)
The Egret Hunter (1910)
Between Love and Duty (1910)
The Aztec Sacrifice (1910)
The Seminole’s Halfbreeds (1910)
The Cliff Dwellers (1910)
Friends (1910)
The Castaways (1910)
The Wanderers (1910)
The Navajo’s Bride (1910)
The Miner’s Sacrifice (1910)
Grandmother (1910)
A Daughter of Dixie (1910)
A Colonial Belle (1910)
The Perversity of Fate (1910)
The Cow Puncher’s Sweetheart (1910)
Leap for Life (1910)
The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1910)
The Heart of Edna Leslie (1910)
The Way of Life (1910)
A Lad from Old Ireland (1910)
The Little Spreewald Maiden (1910)
The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg (1910)
The Stranger (1910)
When Lovers Part (1910)
For the Love of an Enemy (1911)
The Secret of the Still (1911)
Her Chum’s Brother (1911)
The Little Sister (1911)
Grandmother’s War Story (1911)
The Open Road (1911)
Sailor Jack’s Reformation (1911)
The Irish Honeymoon (1911)
The Diver (1911)
A War Time Escape (1911)
A Sawmill Hero (1911)
The Lass Who Couldn’t Forget (1911)
By a Woman’s Wit (1911)
In Old Florida (1911)
The Fiddle’s Requiem (1911)
When the Dead Return (1911)
The Carnival (1911)
In Blossom Time (1911)
Tangled Lives (1911)
The Little Soldier of ’64 (1911)
To the Aid of Stonewall Jackson (1911)
Hubby’s Day at Home (1911)
The Colonel’s Son (1911)
The Romance of a Dixie Belle (1911)
Special Messenger (1911)
Rory O’More (1911)
Losing to Win (1911)
The Colleen Bawn (1911)
The Fishermaid of Ballydavid (1911)
Among the Irish Fisher Folk (1911)
The Franciscan Friars of Killarney (1911)
Arrah-na-Pogue (1911)
Driving Home the Cows (1912)
The O’Neill (1912)
His Mother (1912)
The O’Kalems Visit Killarney (1912)
The Vagabonds (1912)
Far From Erin’s Isle (1912)
You Remember Ellen (1912)
A Visit to Madeira (1912)
The Kalemites Visit Gibraltar (1912)
Along the Mediterranean (1912)
The Potters of the Nile (1912)
American Tourists Abroad (1912)
Egypt the Mysterious (1912)
Egypt as it Was in the Time of Moses (1912)
The Fighting Dervishes of the Desert (1912)
Luxor Egypt (1912)
Missionaries in Darkest Africa (1912)
Making Photoplays in Egypt (1912)
A Pet of the Cairo Zoo (1912)
An Arabian Tragedy (1912)
Captured by Bedouins (1912)
Tragedy of the Desert (1912)
Winning a Widow (1912)
Egyptian Sports (1912)
A Prisoner of the Harem (1912)
Easter Celebration at Jerusalem (1912)
Palestine (1912)
From Jerusalem to the Dead Sea (1912)
Down Through the Ages of the Desert (1912)
The Ancient Port of Jaffa (1912)
Along the River Nile (1912)
Ancient Temples of Egypt (1912)
The Poacher’s Pardon (1912)
From the Manger To the Cross (1912)
The Kerry Gow (1912)
The Mayor From Ireland (1912)
Conway, the Kerry Dancer (1912)
Ireland, the Oppressed (1912)
The Shaughraun (1912)
The Wives of Jamestown (1913)
The Lady Peggy’s Escape (1913)
A Daughter of Confederacy (1913)
The Mystery of Pine Creek Camp (1913)
When Men Hate (1913)
In the Power of the Hypnotist (1913)
In the Clutches of the Ku Klux Klan (1913)
For Ireland’s Sake (1914)
Come Back To Erin (1914)
When Men Would Kill (1914)
In the Hands of a Brute (1914)
The Eye of the Government (1914)
A Mother of Men (1914)
The Idle Rich (1914)
Tricking the Government (1914)
The Little Rebel (1914)
The Moth and the Flame (1915)
All For Old Ireland (1915)
Bold Emmett, Ireland’s Martyr (1915)
Seven Sisters (1915)
The Irish in America (1915)
Nan O’ the Backwoods (1915)
Madame Butterfly (1915)
The Ghost of Twisted Oaks (1915)
The Taint (1915)
Poor Little Peppina (1916)
My Lady Incog (1916)
Diplomacy (1916)
The Innocent Lie (1916)
The Smugglers (1916)
The Daughter of MacGregor (1916)
The Belgian (1918)
Marriage for Convenience (1919)
Scratch My Back (1920)
The Right Way (1921)
God’s Country and the Law (1921)
Pardon My French (1921)
Timothy’s Quest (1922)
The Green Goddess (1923)
Little Old New York (1923)
The Humming Bird (1924)
Monsieur Beaucaire (1924)
The Only Woman (1924)
Salome of the Tenements (1925)
The Charmer (1925)
Not So Long Ago (1925)
The Best People (1925)
The White Black Sheep (1926)
Ranson’s Folly (1926)
The Amateur Gentleman (1926)
The Claw (1927)
