Life of an American Fireman is a short, silent film Edwin S. Porter made for the Edison Manufacturing Company.

[1][2] Life of an American Fireman is notable for its synthesis of numerous innovations in film technique that had occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

However, subsequent research by the paper print project at the Library of Congress suggested that the cross-cut version was re-edited at some unspecified time after the film's 1903 release, and that in its original form it used few, if any, of the pioneering edits claimed.

Charles Musser has chronicled the history of this controversy in Before the Nickelodeon and concluded that the paper-print version containing the repetitive action was the one released in 1903.

[4] Martin Scorsese has noted that Life of an American Fireman greatly influenced the visual style of his 1982 film The King of Comedy.