Lois Weber

Follow

Lois Weber (1879-1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director. She is identified in some historical references as "the most important female director the American film industry has known", and among “the most important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films".

Weber has been credited as 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, and 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 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". 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 1915 film Hypocrites (which featured the first full-frontal female nude scene); the 1916 film Where Are My Children? (which discussed abortion and birth control); the 1918 adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes; and The Blot in 1921.

Weber is credited with discovering, mentoring, or making stars of several actresses, including Mary MacLaren, Mildred Harris, Claire Windsor, Esther Ralston, Billie Dove, Ella Hall, Cleo Ridgely, and Anita Stewart, and discovered and inspired 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.