Karl Struss
Personal Info
Known for
Camera
Gender
Male
Birthday
1886-11-30
Day of Death
1981-12-16 (95 years old)
Place of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Karl Struss
Biography
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
Crew
(1959)
The Alligator People
Director of Photography
(1959)
Counterplot
Director of Photography
(1958)
The Fly
Director of Photography
(1958)
Machete
Director of Photography
(1957)
The Deerslayer
Director of Photography
(1957)
She Devil
Director of Photography
(1957)
Kronos
Director of Photography
(1956)
Mohawk
Director of Photography
(1954)
Attila
Camera Operator
(1954)
Two Nights with Cleopatra
Director of Photography
(1954)
Poverty and Nobility
Director of Photography
(1953)
Funniest Show on Earth
Director of Photography
(1953)
Neapolitan Turk
Director of Photography
(1953)
Mesa of Lost Women
Cinematography
(1953)
Domenica a Capri
Director
(1952)
Limelight
Director of Photography
(1952)
Lady Possessed
Director of Photography
(1952)
Rose of Cimarron
Director of Photography
(1951)
Tarzan's Peril
Director of Photography
(1950)
Rocketship X-M
Director of Photography
(1950)
It's a Small World
Director of Photography
(1950)
The Texan Meets Calamity Jane
Director of Photography
(1950)
The Return of Jesse James
Director of Photography
(1949)
Siren of Atlantis
Director of Photography
(1949)
Tarzan's Magic Fountain
Director of Photography
(1949)
Call of the Forest
Director of Photography
(1949)
Hello Out There
Director of Photography
(1948)
The Dude Goes West
Director of Photography
(1947)
The Macomber Affair
Director of Photography
(1946)
Suspense
Director of Photography
(1946)
Tarzan and the Leopard Woman
Director of Photography
(1945)
Bring on the Girls
Director of Photography
(1944)
Rainbow Island
Director of Photography
(1944)
And the Angels Sing
Director of Photography
(1943)
Journey into Fear
Director of Photography
(1943)
Riding High
Director of Photography
(1943)
Happy Go Lucky
Director of Photography
(1941)
Caught in the Draft
Director of Photography
(1941)
Aloma of the South Seas
Director of Photography
(1940)
The Great Dictator
Director of Photography
(1939)
Island of Lost Men
Director of Photography
(1939)
Zenobia
Director of Photography
(1939)
The Star Maker
Director of Photography
(1939)
Paris Honeymoon
Director of Photography
(1938)
Thanks for the Memory
Director of Photography
(1938)
Sing, You Sinners
Cinematography
(1937)
Every Day's a Holiday
Director of Photography
(1937)
Mountain Music
Director of Photography
(1936)
The Preview Murder Mystery
Director of Photography
(1936)
Hollywood Boulevard
Director of Photography
(1936)
Anything Goes
Director of Photography
(1936)
Go West Young Man
Director of Photography
(1936)
Too Many Parents
Cinematography
(1936)
Let's Make a Million
Director of Photography
(1935)
Two for Tonight
Director of Photography
(1935)
Goin' to Town
Director of Photography
(1935)
Mississippi
Director of Photography
(1934)
Four Frightened People
Director of Photography
(1934)
Here Is My Heart
Director of Photography
(1934)
Belle of the Nineties
Cinematography
(1933)
Torch Singer
Director of Photography
(1933)
Tonight Is Ours
Director of Photography
(1933)
The Story of Temple Drake
Director of Photography
(1933)
Disgraced!
Director of Photography
(1933)
The Woman Accused
Director of Photography
(1932)
Island of Lost Souls
Director of Photography
(1932)
Forgotten Commandments
Director of Photography
(1932)
Dancers in the Dark
Director of Photography
(1932)
Two Kinds of Women
Director of Photography
(1932)
The Sign of the Cross
Director of Photography
(1932)
The Man from Yesterday
Director of Photography
(1932)
The World and the Flesh
Director of Photography
(1931)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Director of Photography
(1931)
The Road to Reno
Director of Photography
(1931)
Skippy
Director of Photography
(1931)
Up Pops the Devil
Director of Photography
(1931)
Danger Lights
Director of Photography
(1930)
Abraham Lincoln
Director of Photography
(1930)
The Bad One
Director of Photography
(1930)
Be Yourself!
Director of Photography
(1930)
One Romantic Night
Director of Photography
(1930)
Lummox
Director of Photography
(1929)
The Taming of the Shrew
Director of Photography
(1929)
Coquette
Director of Photography
(1928)
The Battle of the Sexes
Director of Photography
(1928)
Night Watch
Director of Photography
(1927)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Director of Photography
(1927)
Babe Comes Home
Director of Photography
(1926)
Hell's Four Hundred
Director of Photography
(1926)
Sparrows
Director of Photography
(1926)
Forever After
Director of Photography
(1925)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Director of Photography
(1923)
Poor Men's Wives
Director of Photography
(1923)
Mothers-in-Law
Director of Photography
(1922)
Minnie
Director of Photography
(1922)
Thorns and Orange Blossoms
Cinematography
(1922)
Saturday Night
Director of Photography
(1921)
Fool's Paradise
Director of Photography
(1920)
Something to Think About
Director of Photography