Worked as an optician in Philadelphia. Interest in optical instruments led to work with camera equipment and a subsequent fascination with motion pictures. Made his first films by 1896, as well as selling cinema equipment and later running his own chain of picture theatres. Became a member of the Motion Pictures Patents Company (Edison Trust). By 1909, he established Lubin Studio subsidiaries in New York, Atlantic City and (his biggest) in Jacksonville, Florida, where he churned out numerous short comedies.