Mr Daniel Warner Marvin was born in Canastota, Madison, New York on 12 February 1894.

He was the son of Henry Norton Marvin (b. 1862) and Oramella Lucretia Tackabury (b. 1860), both natives of New York who had married around 1883; and he was brother to: Robert (b. 1886), Marguerite (b. 1889) and Kenneth (b. 1891). He was named after his paternal grandfather Daniel Warner Marvin (1824-1913).

His father Henry was founder of the early motion picture production houses of American Mutoscope and the Biograph Company. The studios were situated in an old New York City "brownstone" on 14th street and Fifth Avenue. The building's previous owner was a member of the Cunard family. The film pioneer David Wark Griffith made his first films with Henry Marvin and his partner. Henry's brother was also a cameraman at the studio. In the early years of the century Biograph had a lawsuit with The Edison Group (which was tied to Thomas Edison laboratories) over claims of patent infringement for making films using the Edison Camera. However, Henry Norton Marvin's Company had in their employ a former employee of the Edison group who had been instrumental in inventing the camera in the first place. He developed another camera which got around the patent restrictions and, in the meantime, the Business Manager of Biograph, a fellow named Kennedy, had purchased the rights to the Latham Loop, the process that enabled the film to run in a continuous loop behind the lens. The lawsuit resulted in an arranged Association between The Edison Group and Biograph.

Daniel first appears on the 1900 census living in Lenox Township in Canastota and on the 1910 census living in Manhattan, on both occasions with his family.

Frames from the film of the marriage of Daniel Marvin and Mary Farquarson
(Daily Mirror, May 15 1912)

Daniel was married in Manhattan on 8 January 1912 to Mary Graham Carmichael Farquharson (b. 1894). Their marriage was not filmed, however, but the ceremony was restaged for the camera on 12 March at the home of Mary's parents, 317 Riverside Drive. The London Daily Mirror reported it to be the very first wedding to be "cinematographed". They later honeymooned in Europe, departing aboard Mauretania, and for their return to the USA they boarded the Titanic at Southampton as first class passengers (ticket number 113773 which cost £53, 2s). They occupied cabin D-30.

On the night of the sinking Daniel assisted his wife to a boat with the words "It's alright, little girl. You go. I will stay." Daniel died in the sinking, his body, if recovered, was never identified.

Among the crowds that gathered at the New York offices of White Star on 15 April 1912 were relatives of both Daniel and Mary Marvin. Whilst they received word that Mary had been saved there was no word of Daniel.

Daniel became a posthumous father following the sinking. Mary gave birth to a daughter named Mary Margaret "Peggy" (later Mrs Wheaton Kittredge) on 21 October 1912. Mary later remarried and had a further two children before her death in 1975. His mother died in 1937 and his father on 12 January 1940. His daughter Mary died on 7 October 1993 in Massachusetts.

Daniel is remembered on a headstone in Warners Village cemetery Onondage County, New York.