Director

George Albert Smith

Directing

Career Snapshot

Explained

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Directed credits

Prolific

Very extensive directing filmography.

TMDB popularity

0.1

Low visibility

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Directed movies: 36Directed series: 0All crew credits: 42

TMDB ID: 1037661

IMDb ID: nm0808310

Known for: Directing

Born: January 4, 1864

Died: May 17, 1959

Age: 95

Place of birth: Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1897 - 2023

Years active: 127

Average TMDB rating: 5.62

Wikidata: Q768790

Also known as

G.A. Smith • GA Smith

Frequent jobs

Director (36)Producer (4)Camera Operator (1)Production Design (1)

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Biography

Along with his better-known French counterpart Georges Méliès, George Albert Smith, usually credited as G.A. Smith, was one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes, often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. His background was ideal – an established portrait photographer, he also had a long-standing interest in show business, running a tourist attraction in his native Brighton featuring a fortune teller. His films were among the first to feature such innovations as superimposition (Smith patented a double-exposure system in 1897), close-ups and scene transitions involving wipes and focus pulls. He also patented Kinemacolor – the world's first commercial cinema color system--in 1906, which was extremely successful for a time, despite the special equipment required to project it

Movies