Hal Mohr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Mohr

Hal Mohr, A.S.C. (August 2, 1894, San Francisco — May 10, 1974, Santa Monica, California) was a famed movie cinematographer.

Career

In 1915, in an early example of an exploitation film peddled directly to theater owners, Mohr and Sol Lesser produced and directed a film The Last Night of the Barbary Coast. This film purported to show the last night of the depraved Barbary Coast red-light district of San Francisco before it was shut down by the police. (The area wasn't actually closed down until 1917.) This is now considered a lost film.

Notably, Mohr is the only person to have won a competitive Academy Award without being nominated for it. In 1936, a write-in campaign won him the Best Cinematography Oscar for his work on A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). The Academy later changed the Oscar rules, making write-in voting impossible. In 1944, Mohr became the first person to win an Oscar for both Black-and-White and Color cinematography when he won his second Academy Award, this time with W. Howard Greene for Best Cinematography in a Color Film, for their work on The Phantom of the Opera (1943).

Mohr was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematographer for his work on The Fourposter (1952), a film based on a play of the same name, written by Jan de Hartog. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Cinematography in a Black and White Film, for his work on the same movie.

Other film cinematographer credits include The Big Gamble (1931), Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941), Another Part of the Forest (1948) and The Wild One (1953).

Mohr served as president of the American Society of Cinematographers from 1930 to 1931. Then, for two terms from 1963 to 1965 and finally from 1969 to 1970.

For his many contributions to motion pictures and the film industry, Hal Mohr received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6433 Hollywood Blvd.

Personal life

On December 7, 1934, Mohr married actress Evelyn Venable, whom he met on the set of the Will Rogers film David Harum. Strict vegetarians, they had two daughters, Dolores and Rosalia, and remained married until his death in 1974.