Biography
Billy Bitzer (born Johann Gottfried Wilhelm Bitzer) was an American cinematographer. He was born on 21 April 1872 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and died on 29 April 1944 in Los Angeles, California.
Bitzer was a close associate of director D. W. Griffith. He worked as cinematographer on Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) and other films including Way Down East (1920). He had previously worked as a projectionist and cameraman for the Biograph Company.
In 2003, a survey by the International Cinematographers Guild named Bitzer one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history.
