CINEFILER

Karl Struss

Born
November 30, 1886
Died
December 16, 1981
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Karl Struss, A.S.C. (November 30, 1886 – December 15, 1981) was an American photographer and a cinematographer of the 1900s through the 1950s. He was also one of the earliest pioneers of 3-D films. While he mostly worked on films, such as F. W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Limelight, he was also one of the cinematographers for the television series Broken Arrow and photographed 19 episodes of My Friend Flicka. In 1919, after his discharge from WWI, he moved to Los Angeles and signed on with Cecil B. DeMille as a cameraman, initially for the film For Better, For Worse starring Gloria Swanson, followed by another Swanson film Male and Female and leading to a two-year contract with the studio In early 1921, he married Ethel Wall, who helped to support him in his photographic work independent of the film studios, which included pictorial views set in California In the 1920s, Struss worked on such films as Ben-Hur and F. W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. In 1927, he contracted with United Artists, where he worked with D. W. Griffith on such films as Drums of Love and also filmed Mary Pickford's first talking film Coquette. He continued his experimental work with camera technology, developing the "Lupe Light" and a new bracket system for the Bell & Howell camera. From 1931 through 1945, Struss worked as a cameraman for Paramount, where he worked on a variety of material including films featuring Mae West, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour Struss also aimed to shape the field through publishing; for example, in 1934 he authored "Photographic Modernism and the Cinematographer" for American Cinematographer. Struss was later admitted to the American Society of Cinematographers, and was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts. In 1949, while working as a freelancer, he began his work in "stereo cinematography", becoming one of the first proponents of that art form. Unfortunately, he did most of his 3D film work in Italy and none of his films were subsequently released in 3D in the United States. Struss's photographic archive of exhibition prints, film stills, negatives and papers (3 linear feet of materials) is available at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art located in Fort Worth, Texas.
Known For
The Great Dictator
(1940)
Director of Photography
The Fly
(1958)
Director of Photography
Limelight
(1952)
Director of Photography
Mohawk
(1956)
Director of Photography
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(1931)
Director of Photography
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
(1925)
Director of Photography
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
(1927)
Director of Photography
Journey into Fear
(1943)
Director of Photography
Coquette
(1929)
Director of Photography
Suspense
(1946)
Director of Photography
Skippy
(1931)
Director of Photography
Attila
(1954)
Camera Operator
Torch Singer
(1933)
Director of Photography
Abraham Lincoln
(1930)
Director of Photography
Sparrows
(1926)
Director of Photography
Kronos
(1957)
Director of Photography
Full Filmography
Camera
Something to Think About
(1920)
Director of Photography
Fool's Paradise
(1921)
Director of Photography
Minnie
(1922)
Director of Photography
Poor Men's Wives
(1923)
Director of Photography
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
(1925)
Director of Photography
Sparrows
(1926)
Director of Photography
Forever After
(1926)
Director of Photography
Hell's Four Hundred
(1926)
Director of Photography
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
(1927)
Director of Photography
Babe Comes Home
(1927)
Director of Photography
The Battle of the Sexes
(1928)
Director of Photography
Night Watch
(1928)
Director of Photography
Coquette
(1929)
Director of Photography
The Taming of the Shrew
(1929)
Director of Photography
Abraham Lincoln
(1930)
Director of Photography
Be Yourself!
(1930)
Director of Photography
One Romantic Night
(1930)
Director of Photography
Danger Lights
(1930)
Director of Photography
Lummox
(1930)
Director of Photography
The Bad One
(1930)
Director of Photography
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(1931)
Director of Photography
The Road to Reno
(1931)
Director of Photography
Skippy
(1931)
Director of Photography
Up Pops the Devil
(1931)
Director of Photography
Island of Lost Souls
(1932)
Director of Photography
Forgotten Commandments
(1932)
Director of Photography
Dancers in the Dark
(1932)
Director of Photography
Two Kinds of Women
(1932)
Director of Photography
The Sign of the Cross
(1932)
Director of Photography
The Man from Yesterday
(1932)
Director of Photography
The World and the Flesh
(1932)
Director of Photography
Torch Singer
(1933)
Director of Photography
Tonight Is Ours
(1933)
Director of Photography
The Story of Temple Drake
(1933)
Director of Photography
Disgraced!
(1933)
Director of Photography
The Woman Accused
(1933)
Director of Photography
Four Frightened People
(1934)
Director of Photography
Here Is My Heart
(1934)
Director of Photography
Two for Tonight
(1935)
Director of Photography
Goin' to Town
(1935)
Director of Photography
The Preview Murder Mystery
(1936)
Director of Photography
Hollywood Boulevard
(1936)
Director of Photography
Go West Young Man
(1936)
Director of Photography
Let's Make a Million
(1936)
Director of Photography
Every Day's a Holiday
(1937)
Director of Photography
Mountain Music
(1937)
Director of Photography
Thanks for the Memory
(1938)
Director of Photography
The Star Maker
(1939)
Director of Photography
Zenobia
(1939)
Director of Photography
Paris Honeymoon
(1939)
Director of Photography
Island of Lost Men
(1939)
Director of Photography
The Great Dictator
(1940)
Director of Photography
Aloma of the South Seas
(1941)
Director of Photography
Caught in the Draft
(1941)
Director of Photography
Journey into Fear
(1943)
Director of Photography
Riding High
(1943)
Director of Photography
Rainbow Island
(1944)
Director of Photography
And the Angels Sing
(1944)
Director of Photography
Bring on the Girls
(1945)
Director of Photography
Suspense
(1946)
Director of Photography
Tarzan and the Leopard Woman
(1946)
Director of Photography
The Macomber Affair
(1947)
Director of Photography
The Dude Goes West
(1948)
Director of Photography
Siren of Atlantis
(1949)
Director of Photography
Call of the Forest
(1949)
Director of Photography
Hello Out There
(1949)
Director of Photography
Tarzan's Magic Fountain
(1949)
Director of Photography
Rocketship X-M
(1950)
Director of Photography
It's a Small World
(1950)
Director of Photography
The Return of Jesse James
(1950)
Director of Photography
The Texan Meets Calamity Jane
(1950)
Director of Photography
Tarzan's Peril
(1951)
Director of Photography
Limelight
(1952)
Director of Photography
Lady Possessed
(1952)
Director of Photography
Rose of Cimarron
(1952)
Director of Photography
Neapolitan Turk
(1953)
Director of Photography
Funniest Show on Earth
(1953)
Director of Photography
Two Nights with Cleopatra
(1954)
Director of Photography
Poverty and Nobility
(1954)
Director of Photography
Attila
(1954)
Camera Operator
Mohawk
(1956)
Director of Photography
She Devil
(1957)
Director of Photography
Kronos
(1957)
Director of Photography
The Deerslayer
(1957)
Director of Photography
The Fly
(1958)
Director of Photography
Machete
(1958)
Director of Photography
The Alligator People
(1959)
Director of Photography
Counterplot
(1959)
Director of Photography
Crew
Directing
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