High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! George Albert Smith (4 January 1864, London – 17 May 1959) was a stage hypnotist, psychic, magic lantern lecturer, astronomer, inventor, and one of the pioneers of British cinema, who is best known for his controversial work with Edmund Gurney at the Society for Psychical Research, his short-films from 1897-1903 which pioneered film editing and close-ups, and his development of the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor.