William Cronjager

Ace cinematographer William Cronjager was born on March 28, 1930 in Queens, New York. Cronjager stems from a long and illustrious line of extraordinary technical experts in Hollywood: his father Henry Cronjager, uncle Edward Cronjager, grandfather Henry Cronjager, and great uncle Jules Cronjager were all first-rate cinematographers whose collective body of work dates back to the silent movie days in the early 20th century. William was a second assistant cameraman on "South Pacific" and an assistant cameraman on "The Hustler." Cronjager made his major mark on television and racked up a substantial amount of credits shooting episodes of such TV shows as "Alias Smith and Jones," "Baretta," "Columbo," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Hill Street Blues" (for which he won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography in a Series for his exemplary work on the pilot "Hill Street Station" and shot 27 episodes altogether of this groundbreaking television program), "Partners in Crme," and "Miami Vice." In addition to his extensive list of episodic television credits, William also shot a few theatrical features and a slew of made-for-TV pictures. His last credit was the TV movie "Broken Angel" in 1988. He died at age 65 on May 25, 1995 in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.