J. Stuart Blackton

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Videos

See J. Stuart Blackton's animated movie “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces”

Read Next

Vandalized Art list. Combo of EB owned illustration (top) and parent Asset 182294. 4 of 11 The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velazquez was hit with a meat cleaver by Mary Richardson

Art Abuse: 11 Vandalized Works of Art

Painting palette with oil paints and brushes. Rainbow colored paints, arts and entertainment

Art History: The Origins of 7 of Your Favorite Art Supplies

Bag end on Bagshot row from the movies Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in Hobbiton, New Zealand, Australia

You Ought to Be in Pictures: 8 Filming Locations You Can Actually Visit

Members of the public view artwork by Damien Hirst entitled: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living - in the Tate Modern art gallery on April 2, 2012 in London, England. (see notes) (1991) Tiger shark, glass, steel

Vile or Visionary?: 11 Art Controversies of the Last Four Centuries

Sculpture of woman before restoration (left) and after restoration on the exterior of an office building in Palencia, Spain. (art restoration)

5 Art Restorations Gone Wrong

Discover

Flags That Look Alike

The Jeff Koons tulips sculputure outside the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao, Spain, Basque Country.

What’s the Difference Between Modern and Contemporary Art?

Shadow of a man holding large knife in his hand inside of some dark, spooky buiding

7 of History's Most Notorious Serial Killers

What’s the Difference Between Llamas and Alpacas?

Law legal system crime concept with gavel and scales of justice with books in the background. (mallet, judicial system).

What Are the Differences Between First-, Second-, and Third-Degree Murder?

Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army

8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

J. Stuart Blackton

American film director

Also known as: James Stuart Blackton

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Quick Facts

In full:: James Stuart Blackton

Born:: Jan. 5, 1875, Sheffield, Yorkshire, Eng.

Died:: Aug. 13, 1941, Hollywood (aged 66)

See all related content

J. Stuart Blackton (born Jan. 5, 1875, Sheffield, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Aug. 13, 1941, Hollywood) was a British-born U.S. film director and producer who introduced animation and other important film techniques that helped shape and stimulate the development of cinematic art.

While interviewing Thomas A. Edison in 1895, Blackton’s interest in films was so aroused that in the following year he and Albert E. Smith established Vitagraph; in 1899 they were joined by William T. Rock. Their first film, The Burglar on the Roof (1897), was followed by a long series of film successes that made Blackton a millionaire. He left Vitagraph for a while but returned to work for the company until it was sold in 1926 to Warner Brothers.

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

Blackton’s motion-picture adaptations of Shakespeare’s dramas were the first such produced in the United States. Many other of his films were centred on such well-known characters as Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Salome, Richelieu, Moses, and Saul and David. After losing his fortune in the economic depression of 1929, Blackton supported himself by exhibiting his old films at sideshows.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.