Biography
Nicholas Musuraca (also credited as Nick Musuraca) was an Italian-born cinematographer who worked primarily in Hollywood. Born in Riace, Calabria, he emigrated to the United States in 1907. He began his film career as chauffeur to producer J. Stuart Blackton and progressed to camera work on silent films before becoming a director of photography at RKO Radio Pictures in the 1930s.
Musuraca is best known for his contributions to film noir and Val Lewton's low-budget horror films at RKO. He photographed Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), often cited as an early noir; Cat People (1942) and other Lewton productions; The Spiral Staircase (1946); and Out of the Past (1947), directed by Jacques Tourneur. He received an Academy Award nomination for his work on I Remember Mama (1948).
After leaving RKO in the mid-1950s he worked briefly at Warner Bros. and then at Desilu, where he shot television series including F Troop until the mid-1960s. He died in Los Angeles in 1975.
