Four-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was born in
St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1893, at the age of four, his family moved
to the United States, eventually settling in Boston. After schooling,
he got his first job in 1907 working as a newsboy and personal runner
for William Randolph Hearst's
'Boston American'. He was trained in reporting and as a still
photographer and dark room technician. By 1914, he produced his own
weekly newsreels for a local Loew's theatre, and, within another year,
was employed as a cameraman with the Fox Film Corporation in New York.
There, he perfected his craft over the next eleven years, rising from
assistant cameraman to full cinematographer with a weekly salary of
$175. He then moved over to Paramount's Kaufman Astoria Studios, where
he worked under the supervision of the experienced
George J. Folsey on several short
features.
In 1933, Ruttenberg decided to ply his trade in Hollywood, now that the
transition to sound pictures had been successfully made. He had brief
spells with RKO and Warners, before putting up his tent at MGM for the
greater part of his long and distinguished career (1934-1963). He
became an innovator in his use of cranes and dolly devices, often
designed to capture scenes in a single take. Another distinguishing
aspect of his camerawork was to keep the performers in sharp focus,
while softening the background, thus highlighting the actors almost
three-dimensionally, while also creating a sense of immediacy.
Ruttenberg shot some of MGM's finest black-and-white films of the 30's
and 40's, his lighting (which he often took charge of personally,
rather than assigning assistants) providing the exact ingredients
required to create the right atmosphere in each instance:
Blinde Wut (1936),
Three Comrades (1938),
Ihr erster Mann (1940),
Die Nacht vor der Hochzeit (1940),
Mrs. Miniver (1942) and
Gefundene Jahre (1942), to name but
a few.
During the 1950's, Ruttenberg proved just as adept at colour
photography, winning a Golden Globe award for his work on
Brigadoon (1954), and his fourth
Academy Award for the musical Gigi (1958).
Among his six unsuccessful nominations, he received the last for
Telefon Butterfield 8 (1960), creating some
of the most enduring images of
Elizabeth Taylor at her peak.
He free-lanced for a few years after leaving MGM and finally retired in
1968. He was honoured by the American Society of Cinematographers
Milestone award.
