Person    | Male  Born 7/9/1855  Died 5/5/1921

William Friese-Greene

Categories: Cinema

Photographer, inventor and pioneer of cinematography. Born Bristol as William Edward Green. Married the Swiss Helena Friese in 1874 and added her name to his. (It's not clear where the extra "e" came from.) His name is sometimes given without the hyphen.

One of the first to work (mainly in Brighton) on the idea of moving images, he lodged various patents but none of his methods worked well enough to keep him out of the bankruptcy courts nor for the world to credit him as the inventor of cinema.

Died at a cinema industry meeting in the Connaught Rooms and buried at Highgate Cemetery with a grave monument by Lutyens (unexpectedly traditionally Gothic in style), on which he is described as "the inventor of kinematography". The Gaumont Graphic newsreel (available on the British Pathe website) captured Friese-Greene’s funeral procession arriving at the cemetery, the coffin topped by a full size mock-up of a film projector pointing at a screen on which are the words, picked out in flowers, “The End”.

In 1951 a biopic, The Magic Box, directed by John Boulting, was produced for the Festival of Britain.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
William Friese-Greene

Commemorated ati

Tricycle Cinema opening

The Tricycle Cinema was opened by Emma Thompson on 12th November 1998. Bringi...

Read More

William Friese-Greene

W. Friese-Greene

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir David Hare

Sir David Hare

Playwright, screenwriter and director. Born in St Leonards-on-Sea. Best known for his stage plays including 'Plenty', 'Racing Demon' and 'Amy's View'. He has also written the scripts for many telev...

Person, Cinema, Theatre

1 memorial
Dame Thora Hird DBE

Dame Thora Hird DBE

Actor.  Born Lancashire.  Played many comic roles.  Late in her life Alan Bennett wrote a number of roles for her.

Person, Cinema, Humour, TV & Radio

1 memorial
Mary Millington

Mary Millington

Model and porn actor. Born Mary Ruth Quilter, she came to fame in the long-running soft-porn film 'Come Play With Me'. However, she soon found herself being replaced by younger models, which led to...

Person, Cinema

1 memorial
Lumière Cinématographe

Lumière Cinématographe

The Lumière Cinématographe was a machine for projecting moving pictures, invented in France by Antoine Lumière and his sons, Louis and Auguste.  

Media, Cinema, France

1 memorial
Hannah Taylor-Gordon

Hannah Taylor-Gordon

Actor. She started acting at the age of four, and trained at the New York City Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Graduated in 2012 from LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art). Aft...

Person, Cinema, TV & Radio, USA

1 memorial