Karl Brown

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Brown as actor in the Griffith film Home, Sweet Home (1914)

Karl Brown (born December 26, 1896 in McKeesport , Pennsylvania , † March 25, 1990 in Woodland Hills , Los Angeles , California ) was an American cinematographer , screenwriter , actor and director .

Life

The son of theater actors became a film laboratory assistant at the age of 15, and at 17 he began working for David Wark Griffith . For this, Brown shot the special camera effects or was the second cameraman, and he was twice in Griffith's films as an actor in front of the camera. In Griffith's monumental films The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance , he acted as first assistant to Griffith's cameraman Billy Bitzer . In the case of intolerance, he pioneered the technique of “double printing”; in the Jesus sequence, he superimposed several film images in order to achieve a supernatural atmosphere. Brown also made a contribution to the further development of miniature projection technology. From 1916 he worked as head cameraman on over 33 films, of which the best known today is the adventure film The Caravan .

His first directorial work was the drama Stark Love , set in rural America in 1927, which was unsuccessful with audiences and has remained largely unknown to this day, but was highly regarded by critics and entered the National Film Registry in 2009 . Brown's later sound films from the 1930s were mostly rather forgettable B-movies, so that his directing career petered out. From 1939 he wrote only scripts for second- or third-rate films, including horror strips with Boris Karloff , and later also for television series. He also wrote novels and short stories, such as The Cup of Trembling , a 1959 novel about the son of Harriet Beecher Stowe . 1960 ended his work in the active film business with scripts for the series Death Valley Days .

Brown was initially forgotten, but was rediscovered by film historians in the last 20 years of his life as a contemporary witness of the silent film era, with a particular focus on his work with Griffith. In 1973 he published his autobiography Adventures with DW Griffith and was interviewee for Kevin Brownlow's documentary series Hollywood (1980). He was married to actress and pilot Edna Mae Cooper (1900-1986) from 1922 until her death in 1986. He died in 1990 at the age of 93.

Filmography (selection)

As an assistant cameraman

As a head cameraman

  • 1916: The Traveling Salesman
  • 1917: Her Official Fathers
  • 1917: Stage Struck
  • 1918: Battling Jane
  • 1921: Brewster's Millions
  • 1923: The caravan (The Covered Wagon)
  • 1923: Ruggles of Red Gap
  • 1926: Mannequin

As a director

  • 1927: Stark Love (also screenwriter and producer)
  • 1932: Flames (also screenwriter)
  • 1938: Port of Missing Girls (also screenwriter)
  • 1938: Barefoot Boy

As a screenwriter only

  • 1939: The Man They Could Not Hang
  • 1940: Before I Hang
  • 1940: The Man with Nine Lives
  • 1942: The Ape Man
  • 1942: Hitler - Dead or Alive
  • 1953: Geknechtet (The Vanquished)
  • 1956: The Millionaire
  • 1956: Sheriff of Cochise
  • 1959–1960: In the Wild West ( Death Valley Days ; TV series, five episodes)

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 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 561 f.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AP: Karl Brown, 93, Hollywood Pioneer In Cinematography . In: The New York Times . March 30, 1990, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed February 28, 2018]).
  2. ^ Kennington Bioscope presents Stark Love (1927) "The Cinema Museum, London . In: The Cinema Museum, London . ( org.uk [accessed February 28, 2018]).
  3. ^ Karl Brown | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved February 28, 2018 .
  4. ^ AP: Karl Brown, 93, Hollywood Pioneer In Cinematography . In: The New York Times . March 30, 1990, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed February 28, 2018]).
  5. ^ Karl Brown | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved February 28, 2018 .
  6. ↑ BURT A. FOLKART: Charles Brown; Pioneer in Cinematography . In: Los Angeles Times . March 29, 1990, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed February 28, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cinematographer, screenwriter and director
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH McKeesport , United States
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1990
Place of death Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) , United States