Lois Weber

Born: 1879-06-12 in Allegheny City [now Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, USA

Died: 1939-11-13

Known For: Directing

Biography

Lois Weber (1879 - 1939) was a true American auteur on par with D. W. Griffith. A director, actress, screenwriter, and producer of mostly silent films, she was the first American woman to direct a full-length feature film (1914's The Merchant of Venice), the first American woman director to own her own film studio, and one of the first film directors to experiment with sound. Weber pioneered the split-screen technique in the 1913 short film Suspense, and Hypocrites featured the first non-pornographic full-frontal female nude scene in 1915. Many of her films tackled social issues like abortion, poverty, discrimination, and religion, drawing the attention of censors. Only a fraction of her films, estimated to number between 200 and 400, were preserved. In 2022, the American Film Institute announced a new initiative titled "Behind the Veil," after one of Weber's lost films. The initiative "will document 6,000 short films from the silent and early sound eras to uncover the innovative contributions of female and BIPOC storytellers."

Filmography

2016

The Women Who Run Hollywood as Self (archive footage)

2009

Early Directors on Directing as Self

1934

White Heat ... (Writer)

1921

The Blot ... (Director)
Too Wise Wives ... (Director)
What's Worth While? ... (Producer)
What Do Men Want? ... (Director)

1920

To Please One Woman ... (Director)

1919

Home ... (Director)
Forbidden ... (Director)
When a Girl Loves ... (Writer)
A Midnight Romance ... (Writer)
Mary Regan ... (Scenario Writer)

1918

Tarzan of the Apes ... (Writer)
Borrowed Clothes ... (Director)
The Doctor and the Woman ... (Director)
For Husbands Only ... (Producer)

1917

The Mysterious Mrs. M ... (Director)
Even as You and I ... (Director)
Alone in the World
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle as Mrs. Broome
The Price of a Good Time ... (Director)

1916

Shoes ... (Director)
The Dumb Girl of Portici ... (Producer)
Where Are My Children? ... (Director)
John Needham's Double ... (Director)
Wanted- A Home ... (Producer)
Idle Wives as Anne
Saving the Family Name ... (Director)
The People vs. John Doe ... (Director)
Discontent ... (Director)
The Flirt ... (Writer)
Hop - The Devil's Brew as Lydia Jansen
The Eye of God as Renie

1915

Hypocrites ... (Director)
A Cigarette - That's All ... (Director)
Sunshine Molly as Sunshine Molly
Jewel ... (Writer)
Captain Courtesy ... (Director)
It's No Laughing Matter ... (Writer)
Scandal as Daisy Dean
Betty in Search of a Thrill ... (Director)

1914

The Opened Shutters ... (Scenario Writer)
The Merchant of Venice as Portia
The Spider and Her Web as Madame DuBarr
Lost by a Hair as Summer Girl
False Colors as Mrs. Moore
The Pursuit of Hate as Diana Grave

1913

Suspense. as The Wife
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Rosary as The Soldier's Sweetheart
The Jew's Christmas as Leah - Isaac's Daughter
How Men Propose as The Maid

1912

A Japanese Idyll
Fine Feathers as Mira, the Artist's Model
The Troubadour's Triumph ... (Director)
Eyes That See Not as The Millionaire's Wife

1911

From Death to Life as Aratus' Wife
A Heroine of '76 as The Tavern Keeper's Daughter
The Twins as The Twin Sisters
Sherlock Holmes, Jr. as Mrs. Brown
Fate as Flora Brown
The Price as Ann
Lost Illusions as Grace - The Wife
On the Brink as Tess