John Scott Biddle (June 7, 1925 – October 1, 2008) was a foremost yachting cinematographer and lecturer, establishing a film-making career that spanned more than forty years. His films captured not only the technical aspects of sailing but also the human story in events as tranquil as a Nova Scotia cruise and as grand as the America's Cup Races. Early life Biddle was born on June 7, 1925, near Philadelphia, the fourth of five children. His parents, were both from prominent Philadelphia families. His father was Brigadier General Nicholas Biddle (1893–1977), whose great-grandfather was Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States. His mother was Sarah Lippincott Biddle (1894–1962), whose paternal grandfather Joshua Ballinger Lippincott (1813–1886) founded J. B. Lippincott Company, and maternal grandfather Joseph Wharton (1826–1909) founded the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His colorful family included cousins Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. and Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. Biddle's father served a lifelong term with the National Guard, was active in both World Wars, and was a well-noted, big-game hunter. He was commissioned to travel the world and bring back specimens; some of his ‘trophies’ still reside at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. During Nicholas’ travels, he would film the hunts, then return home and allow young John to experiment with his movie camera and all his unexposed film. John tinkered further with the camera at his family's summer home in Jamestown, Rhode Island, where he also mastered the idiosyncrasies of ocean sailing. Focusing on his brothers, sisters and twelve cousins as subjects on and around Narragansett Bay, he refined his choice of angles, composition, containment of action within the frame and editing. School and military years Biddle, and his many cousins, attended Meadowbrook School, then went on to Kent School in Connecticut. He turned 18 in 1943 and served in the infantry during World War II. A bad tooth sent him to the back of the lines during fighting in Belgium. There it was noticed that he could play piano and work a movie projector, so he was assigned to entertain the troops. Shortly thereafter, he discovered two thirds of his platoon had been killed in a firefight. His entertaining skills likely had spared his life. They also led to an unlikely occurrence: brother Nicholas Jr., who was fighting in the same region, learned that John was working at the back of the