Edward Wynard(1887-1926)

"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.