Thomas A. Edison

Personal Info

Known For Producer

Gender Male

Birthday 1847-02-11

Deathday 1931-10-18 (84 years old)

Place of Birth Milan, Ohio, USA

Also Known As Thomas Alva Edison, Thomas Edison, The Wizard of Menlo Park

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, the Black Maria. He was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 of the complications of diabetes.

Known For

Actor

2020
History 101

as Self (archive footage)

2019
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound

as Self (voice) (archive footage)

2019
2015
Edison

as Himself (archive footage)

2011
The Extraordinary Voyage

as Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

2008
Murnau, Borzage and Fox

as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

2005
Edison: The Invention of the Movies

as Himself (archive footage)

1998
1990
The Crash of 1929

as Self (archive footage)

1982
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter

as Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

1978
Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma

as Self (archive footage)

1964
Horizon

as Self

1950
The Golden Twenties

as Self (archive footage)

1942
The Film That Was Lost

as Self (archive footage)