1869 Edgar Lewis, Director of More than 40 Movies, Born in Holden, Missouri Also Acted in First Hollywood Film Made

September 4, 2016

1869 Edgar Lewis, Director of More than 40 Movies, Born in Holden, Missouri Also Acted in First Hollywood Film Made

Edgar Lewis, Movie Director, Actor

Born in Holden, Missouri June 22, 1869

Died May 21, 1938 Los Angeles, CA
He was also an actor in the very first Hollywood Motion Picture and it was also the first film for Cecil B. DeMille!
1914-02-15-The-Squaw-Man Movie Link - Free

After cutting his teeth on stage, Edgar Lewis entered films as an actor and writer in 1911. Three years later, Lewis made his directorial bow. His pre-WW I efforts in this capacity included the historical spectacle Samson (1915). In the 1920's Lewis devoted himself to action-adventure and western fare. Specializing in action-adventure films and westerns, he directed dozens of pictures between 1913 and 1930, when he left directing and returned to his first love, acting. Talkies ended Edgar Lewis' career as a director; he briefly returned to screen acting in 1931 in a brace of budget westerns. Most of his films during the sound era were in bit parts or uncredited roles.

He appeared in his final film, Riding Wild (1935), in 1935 and retired. He died in Los Angeles in 1938.

Movie Director - 48 Credits
Producer - 3 Credits
Writer -4 Credits
Actor - 21 Credits
Edgar Lewis Director, Movie Link "Ladies in Love" 1930

Edgar Lewis Gravesite

Married to Mary Louise Lewis. She was born 1848 in New York, died November 8, 1942 in Hollywood, CA. Interred in Garden of Beginnings/West #127 unmarked. Edgar Lewis is buried in #128.

Mary was a movie screenwriter, married to actor and director Edgar Lewis. They resided at 6434 Yucca Street in Hollywood. The Yucca Street address was home to a number of studio employees and actors George Sands, Edward Norton, George Pauncefort and John Irving.

6434 Yucca Street, Hollywood, CA Today
Last residence of Edgar and Mary Louise Lewis

Edgar Lewis Filmography Link

Edgar Lewis, Film Director

The First Hollywood Motion Picture - Edgar Lewis was an actor in the first Hollywood Motion Picture. Free link to the film is up above in this post.Around 1900 while Georges Méliès was experimenting with moving picture cameras in France, Thomas Edison was inventing cameras and projectors in the U.S. By 1908 Thomas Edison controlled most of the U.S. patents on moving picture cameras and projectors, and a fellow named Eastman Kodak was the only U.S. producer of the long reels of film that Edison's cameras used. The Thomas Edison licensing company in 1908 sued all movie makers who did not pay hefty royalties to Edison, and forced theaters to show only Thomas Edison movies or Biograph movies, which used a slightly different camera design to get around Edison's patents. In December of 1908 the half dozen or so movie companies that had been fighting Edison got together with him and Eastman Kodak to form an alliance, and the Motion Picture Patents Company was formed. The association as a group then fought all new filmmakers that wanted to produce moving pictures, and when lawsuits didn't stop them they hired gangs to break into theaters and destroy equipment and frighten the customers. As motion picture theaters were becoming more and more popular in cities and towns across the country the only movies allowed to be shown were those created by the Edison group of producers . . . until . . . In 1914 a handful of men including Cecil B. DeMille, Jesse L. Lasky, Oscar Apfel, Hal Roach and others decided that the only way they could create their own full length motion pictures would be to move as far away from New York City and Edison's neighborhood in New Jersey, and the Los Angeles area of Southern California seemed like it might be just far enough away. Many short moving picture scenes were filmed in Los Angeles area before this, but never a full length story of an hour or more. This is the first full length motion picture that was produced without the blessing of the official motion picture association, and it opened the door to the sleepy little area known as Hollywood to become the motion picture capital of the world. The interior scenes were filmed in an L shaped barn on the corner of Selma and Vine in a barn that is now the home of the Hollywood Heritage Museum across the street from the Hollywood Bowl entrance. Many of the exterior shots were filmed at Sunset and Vine where a Chase Bank building sits today. In addition to being the first full length movie filmed in Hollywood, it is the first movie for legendary producer Cecil B. DeMille.

Released on February 15, 1914: A British nobleman takes the blame for his brother's theft and flees England, ending up in the American Wild West with an Indian Squaw bride and young son.

Produced by Cecil B. DeMille

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel

Written by Edwin Milton Royle with screenplay by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel

The Actors: Dustin Farnum (Captain James Wynnegate), Monroe Salisbury (Sir Henry, Earl of Kerhill), Winifred Kingston (Lady Diana, Countess of Kerhill), Mrs. A.W. Filson (the Dowager Lady Elizabeth Kerhill), Haidee Fuller (Lady Mabel Wynnegate), Princess Red Wing(Nat-U-Ritch), Foster Knox (Sir John), Fred Montague (Mr. Petrie), 'Baby' Carmen De Rue(Hal), Fernando Galvez (Sir John Applegate), Eugene De Rue (Lieutenant Henry George),H.R. Macy (Lieutenant Alexander Leslie), H.L. Swisher (Lieutenant Charles McGrath),Michael J. Kilpatrick (Lieutenant Cecil Harrison), Sydney Deane (Dean of Trenton), J.H. Alston (the bookmaker), Harry A. Hiscox (Fletcher), Slim Whitaker (the detective), Lew Longenecker (the ship captain), Harry McCabe (the bunco man), Dick La Reno (big Bill),William J. Burns (Shorty), Gordon Sackville (Andy), Richard L'Estrange (Grouchy), Charles Figee (Bull Owen), Joseph Singleton (Tabywana), Old Elk (Baco Willie), William Elmer (Cash Hawkins), Art Acord (Art, townsman), Earl Simpson (McSorley), Crispino (Crispino), O.A. Moor (Smith), Edgar Lewis (Nick), Milton Brown (Budd Hardy), Tex Driscoll (Clark), Jack Ellis (Parker), Jack Clifford (Pete), J.G. Harper (Justice of the Peace), William Mauer (Punk),Jack Big Deer (medicine man), Freddy De Rue (Little Hal), Gordona Bennet (ship captain's wife), Utahna La Reno (ship captain's child), Maureen Rasmussen (Mrs. Chichester Jones),Ruth De Rue (bar maid), Cecilia de Mille (child), Cecil B. DeMille (the faro dealer), Raymond Hatton (cowhand), Hal Roach (townsman), Hoot Gibson (stunt man)

A few movies of Edgar Lewis

Edgar Lewis Presents "A Beggar in Purple"

Directed by Edgar Lewis, Holden, Missouri

Edgar Lewis, Holden, Missouri Movie Director, Writer, Actor
Illustration of a review in The Moving Picture World for the American movie The Toilers (1916) aka Those Who Toil

Director (48 credits)

1930 Ladies in Love

1929 Love at First Sight

1929 Unmasked

1928 The Gun Runner

1928 Life's Crossroads

1928 Stormy Waters

1928 The Arizona Cyclone

1928 Put 'Em Up

1928 The Fearless Rider

1927 One Glorious Scrap

1927 A Made-To-Order Hero