Fred Ott


Frederick P. Ott was an employee of Thomas Edison's laboratory in the 1890s. His likeness appears in two of the earliest surviving motion pictures - Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze and Fred Ott Holding a Bird - both from 1894.
In the former film, Ott takes a pinch of snuff, which causes him to sneeze.
Ott began working with Edison in 1874 and joined him on a long-term basis in 1893 at a research facility in Manhattan where Ott and Edison worked on the creation of an electric street light. He worked with Edison on his most notable inventions, retiring shortly after Edison's death in 1931. Ott died at his home in West Orange, New Jersey on October 24, 1936.

Filmography