B: September 20, 1873 in Toronto, Ontario
D: December 16, 1949 in Hollywood, California
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: A Runaway Sleighbelle (1907) The Deacon’s Daughter (1910) Scratch My Back (1920) |
