Hal Mohr

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Hal Mohr, early 1920s

Hal Mohr (born August 2, 1894 in San Francisco , California , † May 10, 1974 in Santa Monica , California) was an American cameraman .

Life

He made his début as a cameraman in 1915 with the short film Last Night of the Barbary Coast , which he directed together with Sol Lesser . Later, he devoted himself entirely to the camera work and was, among others, a cameraman for The Jazz Singer , the film that the sound film was the breakthrough. Other well-known works were the adventure film Unter Piratenflagge with Errol Flynn , Watch on the Rhine with Bette Davis and Der Wilde with Marlon Brando . Along with Gregg Toland , Mohr was one of the pioneers of deep focus cinematography in the 1930s . From the 1950s, Mohr also worked as a cameraman for television productions. He ended his career in 1968 with the science fiction film The Bamboo Saucer .

In 1936 he received the Oscar for best camera for his work on the comedic romance A Midsummer Night's Dream , directed by Max Reinhardt . Mohr gave the Shakespeare film a striking appearance full of glitter effects and contrasts between light and dark. Mohr is the first and only person in the history of the Academy Awards to receive an Oscar without having been nominated. Mohr won as a write-in candidate because many voters had put him on the ballot paper among the nominees, probably not least thanks to a campaign by the producing studio Warner Brothers . Following Mohr's surprising Oscar win, the possibility of writing-in candidates was abolished. Eight years later he and W. Howard Greene received his second trophy for the musical film Phantom of the Opera .

From 1930 to 1931, 1963 to 1965 and from 1969 to 1970 Mohr served as President of the American Society of Cinematographers . In his honor there has been a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 1976 .

Hal Mohr was married twice. His first marriage lasted from 1926 to 1929. Five years later he married the actress Evelyn Venable , this marriage lasted until his death. The couple had two children together.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christopher Beach: A Hidden History of Film Style: Cinematographers, Directors, and the Collaborative Process . Univ of California Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-520-28435-7 ( google.de [accessed July 3, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Kristin Hunt: A Surprise 1936 Oscar Win Banned Write-in Campaigns Forever. February 22, 2019, accessed July 3, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Mohr, Hal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco , California , USA
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1974
Place of death Santa Monica , California