Born in Tahiti, the son of writer James Norman Hall, author of "Mutiny on the
Bounty," Conrad Hall studied filmmaking at USC. He and two classmates
formed a production company and sold a project to a local television
station. Hall's company branched out into making industrial films and
TV commercials. They were hired to shoot location footage for several
feature films, including's Disney's Die Wüste lebt (1953). In the early 1960s, Hall
was hired as a camera assistant on several features and worked his way
up to camera operator. He received his first cinematographer credit in
1965. Hall won acclaim for his rich and complex compositions,
especially for Kaltblütig (1967) and won an Academy Award for Zwei Banditen (1969). He won two
more Oscars, for American Beauty (1999), in 2000, and Road to Perdition (2002).
