Stanley Cortez
Stanley Cortez (* November 4, 1908 in New York City; † December 23, 1997 in Hollywood, actually Stanislaus Krantz ) was an American cinematographer. Cortez was twice (1942 and 1944), nominated for an Oscar, and in 1989 awarded by the American Society of Cinematographers for his life's work. From 1985 to 1986 he was the president of this organization.
Life
Cortez, the younger brother of actor Ricardo Cortez, attended the University of New York when he began, by the way for various film studios, produced in Manhattan to work as a camera assistant. While he worked as a portrait photographer after his studies, he returned to the end of the silent film era back to the film. By the year 1937 Cortez was still camera assistant, then became chief cameraman at Universal Studios in area B -movies. Cortez, where the reputation preceded to achieve great effects with minimal effort, was hired in 1941 by Orson Welles to direct the camera in the production of The Magnificent Ambersons. However, Cortez did not consider what the production company RKO promised by him, namely efficiency and cost savings, and he was blamed for the failure of the film. Despite the criticism of the studio bosses of RKO to Cortez ' work on this production, he received an award for the best camera work of the Film Critics of America, as well as an Oscar nomination.
Cortez had until then always shot in black and white, his first color film was The Man from the Eiffel Tower with Charles Laughton in the lead role, in 1949. Laughton committed Cortez then for The Night of the Hunter as a cameraman. In addition to some "big" movies, Cortez was also in numerous low -budget productions behind the camera, among others for The Naked Kiss by Samuel Fuller, Public Enemy No.1 - John Dillinger, or even spaceship MR1 is not responding. In the 1970s, Cortez then turned increasingly title sequences and worked as a Special Photographer. In between Cortez turned again and again for television. Stanley Cortez died in 1997 in Hollywood heart failure.