Prolific silent film director, the son of Irish immigrants. He started as an actor on the New York stage, and then appeared in films for Mutoscope in 1904, eventually working his way up to general manager of Biograph. Lured away to a rival company, he began to direct features for Kalem by 1907. That year, he became embroiled in a hitherto unprecedented lawsuit (which dragged on for four years), because of his filming of Ben Hur (1907) in disregard of copyright. Publishers and the estate of author Lew Wallace sued Kalem to the tune of $25,000. In addition to shooting films in Jacksonville, Florida, and Ireland (where Kalem had their studios), he also took his film crews to far-flung overseas locations - becoming the first-ever filmmaker to do so. He went to Egypt and Palestine to film the life of Christ, Från krubban till korset (1912), aka "From the Manger to the Cross", which proved a big money-spinner for Kalem. However, a dispute over Olcott's salary led to his name being removed from the credits and he consequently resigned. Not out of work for long, he signed with Famous Players Lasky (which later became Paramount) in 1915. Until his retirement in 1927, Olcott directed some of the studio's biggest stars, from Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson to Norma Talmadge and Rudolph Valentino .

Died at the home of Robert G. Vignola .