Stanley Cortez

Stanley Cortez, ASC (born Stanislaus Samuel Kranz; November 4, 1908 – December 23, 1997 ) was an American cinematographer. He worked on over 100 films between 1929 and 1980, and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. He served as President of the American Society of Cinematographers from 1985 to 1987.

Cortez's most notable credits included Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), John Cromwell's Since You Went Away (1945), Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955), Nunnally Johnson's The Three Faces of Eve (1957), and Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor (1963) and The Naked Kiss (1964).

He was the younger brother of actor and director Ricardo Cortez.

Early life and education Cortez was born Stanislaus Samuel Kranz in New York City in 1908, to a family of Austrian Jewish emigrants. His younger brother was actor Ricardo Cortez (born Jacob Krantz), and Cortez would adopt that surname as an adult to capitalize on his brother's fame. He graduated from New York University, and initially worked in portrait photography.

Career Cortez's first job in the film industry was for Pathé News,

In his later years, Cortez filmed several psychological dramas. In Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947), Cortez used flashing lights placed inside the camera to create a sense of drunkenness. Charles Laughton gave Cortez another challenge – The Night of the Hunter. The film has been widely praised for its innovative use of lighting and cinematography, and Cortez managed to endow the camera movements with a musical quality. In The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Cortez found his actress: Joanne Woodward would be to him what Greta Garbo was to William H. Daniels and Marlene Dietrich to Lee Garmes. Cortez's subtle modulations of lighting match Woodward's equally subtle changes of expression, and both together create the sense of Eve, a psychologically split personality, becoming someone else. In Samuel Fuller's 1963 film Shock Corridor, the labyrinthine hallways and rooms of the studio set are transformed by Cortez's camera into a symbol of incarceration and insanity. Fuller used Cortez again on The Naked Kiss and sought him for The Big Red One in 1978 but the producer Gene Corman said the low-budget film couldn't afford him.

Cortez started Chinatown (1974), but director Roman Polanski replaced him after a few days of shooting due to a disagreement over visual style. He was replaced by John Alonzo.

He was the President of American Society of Cinematographers from 1985 to 1986.

Death Cortez died in 1997 of a heart attack and is buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery. Shock Corridor

The Naked Kiss The Candidate Robert Angus

Nightmare in the Sun Marc Lawrence Young Dillinger Terry O. Morse

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini Don Weis The Navy vs. the Night Monsters Michael A. Hoey 1968 Blue Silvio Narizzano 1969 The Bridge at Remagen John Guillermin 1970 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon Otto Preminger Title sequence photography 1945 Since You Went Away American Society of Cinematographers 1990 Lifetime Achievement Award