D.W. Griffith

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D.W. Griffith

American director

Also known as: David Wark Griffith

Written by Robert M. Henderson

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 8, 2024 • Article History

D.W. Griffith

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Category: Arts & Culture

In full:: David Wark Griffith

Born:: January 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Kentucky, U.S.

Died:: July 23, 1948, Hollywood, California (aged 73)

Founder:: United Artists Corporation

Notable Works:: “Intolerance”

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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 former Confederate colonel, was born in a tiny hamlet not far from Louisville, Kentucky. He received his early education in one-room schools, largely under the ...(100 of 1648 words)

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