Harry Stradling Sr.

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Harry Stradling Sr. (born September 1, 1901 in Newark , New Jersey , † February 14, 1970 in Hollywood , Los Angeles , California ) was an American cameraman who was nominated 14 times for the Oscar for best cinematography and received the award twice.

Live and act

Stradling first came into contact with the film industry in the late phase of the First World War and was behind the camera as one of several recording operators for Mary Pickford's The Little Princess as early as 1917 . At the age of 19 he received his first assignments as head cameraman for a few films with Lionel Barrymore . His work in the 1920s was unspectacular. In 1930 Stradling went to France and shot a few minor works there for Abel Gance and Marcel L'Herbier . Stradling also stood behind the camera in Jacques Feyder's Flemish picture sheet La kermesse héroique in 1935.

During these years he also trained several French cameramen of later importance, including Marcel Grignon , Robert Lefebvre and Michel Kelber . Feyder took Stradling, who had given an interlude in Austrian film in 1935/36 , to England in 1936 to shoot the film Tatjana with Marlene Dietrich in the leading role for Alexander Korda . Stradling remained in Korda's service until 1939, when he returned to the United States at the start of World War II in Europe.

In Hollywood, Harry Stradling found employment with almost all leading production companies and was behind the camera in a large number of well-known productions over the next three decades. Above all, Stradling photographed music films and film musicals, but also high-quality comedies, melodramas and dramas in which he proved to be just as capable of black and white as in color photography. Stradling represented the school of so-called key lights , as coined by his colleague Lee Garmes , i.e. the selective illumination of a certain object or the actor.

Stradling, whose son Harry Stradling Jr. (1925–2017) followed in his father's footsteps, died while filming the Barbra Streisand comedy The Owl and the Kitten . The camera work was then taken over by Andrew Laszlo .

Filmography (selection)

Awards

In 1946 Stradling received the Oscar for the best black and white camera for The Portrait of Dorian Gray , and in 1965 for the best color camera for My Fair Lady .

In addition to the multitude of Oscar nominations, he was nominated for Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! twice nominated for the UK Society of Film and Television Arts Award (Stella Awards).

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 528.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stradling, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stradling, Harry senior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Newark , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1970
Place of death Hollywood , Los Angeles , California