D. W. Griffith success; Biograph co-founder Harry Marvin gave Griffith the position, and he made the short "The Adventures of Dollie". He directed a total of 48 shorts for the company that year. His short "In Old California" (1910) was the first film shot in Hollywood, California. Four years later, he produced and directed his first feature film "Judith of Bethulia" (1914), one of the earliest to be produced in the US. Biograph believed that longer features were not viable at that point. According to Lillian Gish, the company thought that "a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes". Griffith left Biograph
D. W. Griffith Lillian Gish, Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey, were cast members. Gish and Barrymore found their old mentor's presence distracting and became self-conscious. While the two were filming their scenes, Griffith hid behind set scenery. On the morning of July 23, 1948, Griffith was discovered unconscious in the lobby at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles, California, where he had been living alone. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 3:42 PM on the way to a Hollywood hospital. A large public service was held in his honor at the Hollywood Masonic Temple, but few stars came to pay their last