Biography
Karl Struss was an American cinematographer and photographer. Born in New York City on 30 November 1886, he studied photography at Columbia University with Clarence H. White. After service in the First World War, he moved to Los Angeles in 1919 and began working as a cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille.
Struss photographed many films across the silent and sound eras. He shared the first Academy Award for Best Cinematography with Charles Rosher for F. W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). Other credits include Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) and Limelight (1952), and The Fly (1958). He received three further Academy Award nominations and was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also contributed to early 3-D work and photographed episodes of television series including My Friend Flicka.
