Lois Weber

Florence Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film director, screenwriter, producer and actress. She is identified in some historical references as among "the most important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films". Film historian Anthony Slide has also asserted, "Along with D.W.Griffith, Weber was the American cinema's first genuine auteur, a filmmaker involved in all aspects of production and one who utilized the motion picture to put across her own ideas and philosophies".

Weber produced a body of work which has been compared to Griffith's in both quantity and quality and brought to the screen her concerns for humanity and social justice in an estimated 200 to 400 films, of which as few as twenty have been preserved.

She has been credited by IMDb with directing 135 films, writing 114, and acting in 100. Weber was "one of the first directors to come to the attention of the censors in Hollywood's early years".

Weber has been credited with pioneering the use of the split screen technique to show simultaneous action in her 1913 film ''Suspense''. In collaboration with her first husband, Phillips Smalley, in 1913 Weber was "one of the first directors to experiment with sound", making the first sound films in the United States.

She was also the first American woman to direct a full-length feature film when she and Smalley directed ''The Merchant of Venice'' in 1914, and in 1917 the first American woman director to own her own film studio.

During the war years, Weber "achieved tremendous success by combining a canny commercial sense with a rare vision of cinema as a moral tool". At her zenith, "few men, before or since, have retained such absolute control over the films they have directedand certainly no women directors have achieved the all-embracing, powerful status once held by Lois Weber". By 1920, Weber was considered the "premier woman director of the screen and author and producer of the biggest money making features in the history of the film business".

Among Weber's notable films are: the controversial ''Hypocrites'', which featured the first non-pornography full-frontal female nude scene, in 1915; the 1916 film ''Where Are My Children?'', which discussed abortion and birth control and was added to the National Film Registry in 1993; her adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's ''Tarzan of the Apes'' novel for the very first ''Tarzan of the Apes'' film, in 1918; ''The Blot'' (1921) is also generally considered one of her finest works.

Weber is credited with discovering, mentoring, or making stars of several women actors, including Mary MacLaren, Mildred Harris, Claire Windsor, Esther Ralston, Billie Dove, Ella Hall, Cleo Ridgely, and Anita Stewart, and with discovering and inspiring screenwriter Frances Marion. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Weber was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960. Provided by Wikipedia