Edward Wynard(1889-1927)
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
"Eddie" Wynard was a pioneer cinematographer who worked on many motion
pictures uncredited. He is most associated with being the personal
cameraman for actress Norma Talmadge. He is famous for being one of the
first, if not the first, cameraman to strap himself to the wing of an
aeroplane and film aerial footage. In addition to his full credit as
Director of Photography on such classics as "The Moth" (1917), "By
Right of Purchase" (1918), and "The White Moll" (1920) starring Pearl
White, Edward Wynard's uncredited Bio includes camera work on such
famous films as Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" (1909) and
D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" (1915). He began his career working
for the Edison company and then as a "hired hand" at Globe Pictures.
While working at Edison he met his wife Loretta Brogan who worked in
the editing department. They had two daughters Loretta Adele and Irene.
Adele appeared in some films as a child actress but was uncredited. She
later married Walter Patterson and together they were featured actors
on the stage at Brattleboro, Vermont's famous "Little Theater." Eddie
was predeceased by his wife, Loretta, in 1925 who was felled by cancer
at the young age of 33. Eddie stopped making features at the onset of
his wife's illness. After her death, he was asked by the government to
go to Albany, New York to make educational films about the great health
scare of the time, "Hasty Consumption" (now known as Tuberculosis). It
was there, in a hospital specializing in the research and treatment of
the disease, that he himself caught the disease and eventually died
from it in 1927. Both his daughters are still alive in 2004 (Adele 91
and Irene 87). He is also survived by a great-grandson, Young James
Kenny who is an independent Filmmaker, Screenwriter and Actor. As an
intern, he is credited as "T.J. Kenny" in a featured work from PBS'S
series "Alive From Off Center" entitled "Mountainview" which was
directed by Marta Renzi in collaboration with John Sayles.