John Alton

Director | Writer

Date of birth : 10/05/1901

Date of death : 06/02/1996

City of birth : Sopron, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]

Starting out in 1924 as a lab technician at MGM, John Alton left there for Paramount to become a cameraman. He traveled to France and then to South America, where he wrote, photographed and directed several Spanish-language films. Returning to Hollywood in 1937, he soon achieved a reputation as one of the industry's most accomplished cinematographers. In 1951, he and Alfred Gilks won an Academy Award for color photography for An American in Paris (1951).