Louis Le Prince | |
|---|---|
| Born | Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince 28 August 1841 Metz, France |
| Disappeared | 16 September 1890 (aged 49) Dijon, France |
| Status | Vanished |
| Occupation(s) | Artist, Art teacher, inventor, |
| Spouse |
Elizabeth Le Prince-Whitley
(m. 1869) |
Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (French: [lwi lə pʁɛ̃s]; 28 August 1841 – vanished 16 September 1890) was a French artist and inventor. He filmed what may have been the first moving picture sequences to use a single lens camera and a strip of (paper) film.
Le Prince was never able to perform a planned public demonstration in the United States because he mysteriously vanished from a train on 16 September 1890. His body and luggage were never found, but, over a century later, a police archive was found that had a photograph of a drowned man who could have been him.
In the years after his death, his son Adolphe was in a court. He was representing Louis, in a battle against Thomas Edison to name the true inventor of motion pictures. Edison won the case and a few months later, Adolphe was killed in a hunting accident.