Gerald Hirschfeld

Gerald J. Hirschfeld, ASC (25 April 1921 – 13 February 2017) was an American cinematographer.

Early life and education Born and raised in a Jewish family in New York City, Hirschfeld originally trained as a fashion photography. In 1942 during World War II, Hirschfeld enlisted in the Army, and was attached to the Signal Corps Photographic Center in Astoria, Queens, where he was an assistant and operator for established Hollywood cinematographers including Leo Tover and Stanley Cortez, shooting training and propaganda films. Later in the war, Hirschfeld was a combat cameraman in Okinawa.

After his discharge, he enrolled in Columbia University on the G.I. Bill, while continuing to work for the Signal Corps. In 1947, he shot Shades of Grey, a re-tooling of John Huston's (then-unreleased and suppressed) Let There Be Light.

Career Beginning in the late 1940s, Hirschfeld worked as a cinematographer for MPO Videotronics, a New York-based commercial and industrial film production company. He eventually rose to the company's vice president and head of its camera department, where his protégés included Owen Roizman and Gordon Willis.

Hirschfeld made feature film debut with the low-budget film noir C-Man (1949). He and director Joseph Lerner went on to shoot several more B-movies for Eagle-Lion Films, which brought him to the attention of Sidney Lumet. Lumet selected Hirschfeld to shoot his feature directorial debut 12 Angry Men, but the producers insisted upon hiring Boris Kaufman, who had just won an Oscar for On the Waterfront. Hirschfeld used high-key backlight and film processing techniques to suppress the midtones and create a high-contrast look, both paying homage to and comically-exaggerating the look of the Universal Monster films Brooks was parodying. He remarried to script supervisor Julia Tucker in 1982, and they remained together until his death.

Goodbye, Columbus Larry Peerce Last Summer Frank Perry 1st of 3 collaborations with Perry Some Kind of a Nut Garson Kanin

Cotton Comes to Harlem Ossie Davis Diary of a Mad Housewife

Doc T.R. Baskin Herbert Ross 1972 Child's Play Sidney Lumet

Two People Robert Wise Director of photography: New York unit Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams Gilbert Cates 1st of 4 collaborations with Cates

The Dion Brothers Jack Starrett W Richard Quine Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks 1975 The Ultimate Warrior Robert Clouse

Two-Minute Warning Larry Peerce One Summer Love Gilbert Cates Mastermind Alex March

The Car Elliot Silverstein The World's Greatest Lover Gene Wilder

Coma Michael Crichton Director of photography: Jefferson Institute sequence Slow Dancing in the Big City John G. Avildsen Director of photography: Lincoln Center sequence

The Bell Jar Larry Peerce Americathon Neal Israel

Why Would I Lie? Larry Peerce Sunday Lovers Gene Wilder Segment: "Skippy"

Neighbors John G. Avildsen The House of God Donald Wrye 1982 My Favorite Year Richard Benjamin 1983 To Be or Not to Be Alan Johnson 1985 Head Office Ken Finkleman 1987 Malone Harley Cokeliss Television

TV films, specials and miniseries