While Jeanne Calment was the oldest person to appear in a movie (and the oldest ever surviving actress) my question is probably not answered with her name.
It does not have to be a professional. I am guessing that there are for example movie clips of John D. Rockefeller who was born in 1839.
But it is just barely possible that someone born in the 18th century was captured in a film clip although I doubt it.
Here’s a tangentially-related question: Who was the last living person to have met someone born in the 18th century? It is theoretically possible that someone is still alive today who has…
Well, the oldest verified lifespan was 122 years. To be born in 1800 and then meet someone late in life who would then lived to 2011 would mean that the average lifespan of the two people involved would have to be 105. So not impossible, though not that likely either (and even less likely that if it happened, the people in question would’ve been aware of it, as the person alive now would’ve had to be very young).
I was thinking it would be a baby with a very old relative and thus maybe not so unlikely that they would have been told about it later and maybe even have a photo.
This link indicates as of 1999, someone who likely met Hiram Cronk (born in 1800) – his greatt granddaughter was still alive. She was 3 when he died but I bet she met him:
I’ve mentioned this before but it seems like a story you’d be interested in.
John Tyler, future President of the United States, was born in 1790, when George Washington was President. Tyler married his second wife in 1844 (she was 24 at the time). The couple had a son, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, in 1853 when John Tyler was 63 years old.
Like his father, Lyon married a much younger second wife late in his life. Lyon married his second wife in 1921 and this couple had a son, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, in 1928.
Harrison Tyler, the grandson of a man who was born when Washington was President, is still alive today.
A woman died this year, Huguette Clark a copper heiress who was 104 and her father was born in 1839. I would guess she had the earliest-born father of any living person by quite a bit at the time of her death.
(William Clark was a contemporary of J. D. Rockefeller and his son died 50 years ago at almost 90.)
The linked videos are absolutely fascinating. I sort of got sucked into surfing around youtube on the links of other footage and ended up watching Tsar Nicholas and his family [may the lord bless and keep the tsar … far away from us! ] and then from the link for the interview of the Civil War vet got over to recordings of the rebel yell.
What can I say, I am a sucker for nifty bits of history.
Actually, that’s somewhat unlikely, since Muybridge’s photos(the first ever movie) were made in 1877.
More plausibly, George Müller(1805–1898) with an IMDB credit as “self” , presumably archive footage.
For an actual professional actor, as distinct from royalty, celebrities and ordinary people, Harry Braham is interesting. An Englishman born in 1850, he appeared in the unendurable ‘Birth of a Nation’ ( still of great value to those interested in prolonged handshaking ).
His father was Jewish and his mother Anglican, but as he was baptised in St-Martin-In-The-Fields, I’ll guess he was raised in his mother’s faith. It says he was the highest paid member of his profession in the late seventies ( Music Hall entertainer ), and died destitute.
He appeared at the Crystal Palace. I had no idea they did entertainment, although they certainly had enough room.
I have also just learnt there is a Crystal Palace Football Club .
Certainly; but I was pointing out a professional film actor, not someone who laudably got filmed.
And according to that site she was probably born later:
NB Rebecca Allen’s baptism has now been located, and it is clear she can’t have been quite as old as she claimed. One of six known children of Thomas and Mary Allen, she was baptised on 14 October 1810 at Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire—just outside Dunstable. The 1841 census gives her age as 30, which is consistent with this; if she had indeed been born in 1804 her age in this census should have been given as 35, as enumerators were instructed to round down to the nearest five years. While it is not inconceivable that she was born before 2 March (which would make her older than Leo XIII), a seven month interval between birth and baptism is longer than would be expected.] Ben Beck
Which leaves Pope Leo XIII b. 1810 as the earliest known filmed.