Thomas E. Shea

Biography

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 10 May 1861, Thomas E. Shea spent his life treading the boards and calling the shots behind them. He both acted and steered the 1914 short “The Man o' War’s Man,” leaving the earliest celluloid proof of his craft. Off-screen, he shared his days—and his name—with Nellie Burkett. The circle closed where it began: he died in his hometown on 22 April 1940.