Sidney Olcott (1873-1949 )

• director
• born John S. Alcott , September 20, 1873, in Toronto, Ontario
• prolific director of Hollywood silents
• entered films in 1904 as an actor with Mutoscope soon became general manager at Biograph
• as Kalem's first director (from 1907), he got the company involved in a losing court case over the author's copyright to his one-reel version of Ben-Hur (1907) (shot at Manhattan Beach)
• the first Hollywood director to shoot regularly on location, going to Ireland for a number of films and to Palestine for From the Manger to the Cross (1912)
• recognized as a pioneer director of Westerns
• in 1915 he joined Famous Players and directed several films starring Mary Pickford
• filmography

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