Larry Williams(1889-1956)

Pennsylvania-born Larry Williams (born Lawrence E. Williams) was a photographer who became a cameraman with the Thanhouser Company. It's not known exactly when he started with them--cameramen were rarely if ever mentioned in a film's credits--but it's known that he was there as early as 1912. He was the first cameraman--in 1914--to use a stereoscopic camera system (invented by actor Gerald Badgley), which he installed in a Pathe camera and used in a Mary Pickford production. In 1915 he worked for Famous Players, but returned to Thanhouser in that same year. However, the next year he left Thanhouser to work for Box Office Attractions (later to become Fox Films, which itself became 20th Century-Fox), only to return to Thanhouser again. In April of that year his brother, Famous Players cinematographer Emmett A. Williams--with whom he had worked on Mary Pickford's film Rags (1915)--died and Larry left Thanhouser to take his brother's place at Famous Players. While at Famous Players he photographed such films as Little Lady Eileen (1916) and The Traveling Salesman (1916). He later worked for Artcraft Pictures, for whom he photographed Broadway Jones (1917).

He stayed active in the film industry until shortly before his death on March 30, 1956, in Hollywood, California.