Biography
Robert Krasker (also credited as Bob Krasker) was an Australian cinematographer who worked on more than sixty films, mainly in the United Kingdom. He was born on 21 August 1913 in Alexandria, Egypt, during a family business trip; his birth was registered in Perth, Western Australia. He studied art in Paris and photography in Dresden before moving to London in 1932, where he joined Alexander Korda’s London Films and became a senior camera operator, often working with Georges Périnal.
Krasker’s first solo cinematography credits came in the early 1940s. He photographed Brief Encounter (1945) for David Lean and Henry V (1944) for Laurence Olivier. His black-and-white work on Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949) brought international recognition; he won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) for the latter in 1950, the first Australian-born cinematographer to receive an Oscar. Later credits include El Cid (1961) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). He received a BAFTA nomination for The Running Man (1963). Krasker retired in the mid-1960s owing to ill health and died in London on 16 August 1981.
