John F. Seitz
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John Francis Seitz, A.S.C. (June 23, 1892 – February 27, 1979) was an American
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
and inventor. He was nominated for seven
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
.


Career

His Hollywood career began in 1909 as a lab assistant with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in Chicago. He worked as a lab technician for the American Film Manufacturing Company (known as Flying A), also in Chicago.Steeman, Albert
. ''Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers,'' "John F. Seitz page," Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2007. Last accessed: December 13, 2007.
Seitz got his first chance to establish himself as lead cameraman in 1916, and he achieved great success with the director Rex Ingram, most famously on the
Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known sile ...
film '' The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'' (1921). Highly regarded by director
Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...
, Seitz worked with him on the films noir ''
Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay from James M. Cain's Double Indemnity (novel), novel of the same na ...
'' (1944), '' The Lost Weekend'' (1945), and '' Sunset Boulevard'' (1950), receiving
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nominations for each. During his career, he received seven nominations for Academy Award for Best Cinematography. In 1929, he served as president of the American Society of Cinematographers (A.S.C.) for one year, and he had been a member since 1923. The A.S.C. named the 2002 Heritage Award after Seitz. Seitz retired in 1960 and devoted himself to photographic inventions for which he held 18
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
s. An example of a Seitz invention is the matte shot: a large painting is photographed separately and later added to a scene to expand it, add effects, and/or create a sense of depth in backgrounds. He also was noted for his innovations with low-key lighting, which enhanced the film noir style. A widower, he married screenwriter Marie Boyle in 1934 who raised his daughter Margaret Alice Marhoefer and later gave birth to a son, John Lawrence Seitz. Seitz is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery.


Filmography

* ''The Quagmire'' (1916) * ''The Ranger of Lonesome Gulch'' (1916) * '' The Bride's Silence'' (1917) * '' The Serpent's Tooth'' (1917) * '' Whose Wife?'' (1917) * '' A Game of Wits'' (1917) * '' The Mate of the Sally Ann'' (1917) * '' Souls in Pawn'' (1917) * '' Up Romance Road'' (1918) * '' Beauty and the Rogue'' (1918) * '' Powers That Prey'' (1918) * '' The Westerners'' (1919) * '' Hearts Are Trumps'' (1920) * '' The Sagebrusher'' (1920) * '' Shore Acres'' (1920) * '' Uncharted Seas'' (1921) * '' The Conquering Power'' (1921) * '' The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'' (1921) * '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1922) * '' Trifling Women'' (1922) * '' Turn to the Right'' (1922) * '' Where the Pavement Ends'' (1923) * '' Scaramouche'' (1923) * '' The Arab'' (1924) * '' Classmates'' (1924) * '' The Price of a Party'' (1924) * ''
Mare Nostrum In the Roman Empire, () was a term that referred to the Mediterranean Sea. Meaning "Our Sea" in Latin, it denoted the body of water in the context of borders and policy; Ancient Rome, Rome remains the only state in history to have controlled th ...
'' (1926) * '' The Magician'' (1926) * '' The Fair Co-Ed'' (1927) * '' Across to Singapore'' (1928) * '' The Trail of '98'' (1928) * '' Outcast'' (1928) * '' The Patsy'' (1928) * ''
Adoration Adoration is respect, reverence, strong admiration, and love for a certain person, place, or thing. The term comes from the Latin ''adōrātiō'', meaning "to give Homage (arts), homage or worship to someone or something". Ancient Rome In class ...
'' (1928) * '' The Painted Angel'' (1929) * '' The Squall'' (1929) * '' A Most Immoral Lady'' (1929) * '' Hard to Get'' (1929) * '' Careers'' (1929) * '' Her Private Life'' (1929) * '' The Divine Lady'' (1929) * '' Saturday's Children'' (1929) * '' In the Next Room'' (1930) * '' Back Pay'' (1930) * '' Sweethearts and Wives'' (1930) * '' Murder Will Out'' (1930) * '' The Bad Man'' (1930) * '' Road to Paradise'' (1930) * '' Kismet'' (1930) * '' East Lynne'' (1931) * '' Merely Mary Ann'' (1931) * '' Misbehaving Ladies'' (1931) * '' Hush Money'' (1931) * '' Men of the Sky'' (1931) * '' Young Sinners'' (1931) * '' The Age for Love'' (1931) * '' The Right of Way'' (1931) * '' Over the Hill'' (1931) * '' Careless Lady'' (1932) * '' The Woman in Room 13'' (1932) * '' A Passport to Hell'' (1932) * '' She Wanted a Millionaire'' (1932) * '' Six Hours to Live'' (1932) * '' Mr. Skitch'' (1933) * '' Paddy the Next Best Thing'' (1933) * '' Ladies They Talk About'' (1933) * '' Dangerously Yours'' (1933) * '' Adorable'' (1933) * '' Marie Galante'' (1934) * '' Springtime for Henry'' (1934) * '' All Men Are Enemies'' (1934) * '' Coming Out Party'' (1934) * '' Helldorado'' (1934) * '' Curly Top'' (1935) * '' Navy Wife'' (1935) * '' Our Little Girl'' (1935) * '' Redheads on Parade'' (1935) * '' The Littlest Rebel'' (1935) * '' One More Spring'' (1935) * '' The Country Doctor'' (1936) * '' 15 Maiden Lane'' (1936) * '' Poor Little Rich Girl'' (1936) * '' Captain January'' (1936) * '' Madame X'' (1937) * '' Between Two Women'' (1937) * '' Carnival in Paris'' (1937) * '' Navy Blue and Gold'' (1937) * '' Love Is a Headache'' (1938) * ''
A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the ...
'' (1938) * '' Lord Jeff'' (1938) * '' Stablemates'' (1938) * '' Young Dr. Kildare'' (1938) * '' The Crowd Roars'' (1938) * '' The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn'' (1939) * '' The Hardys Ride High'' (1939) * '' Thunder Afloat'' (1939) * '' Bad Little Angel'' (1939) * '' Sergeant Madden'' (1939) * '' 6,000 Enemies'' (1939) * '' A Little Bit of Heaven'' (1940) * '' Dr. Kildare's Strange Case'' (1940) * '' Dr. Kildare's Crisis'' (1940) * '' Sullivan's Travels'' (1941) * '' Fly-By-Night'' (1942) * '' This Gun for Hire'' (1942) * '' Lucky Jordan'' (1942) * '' The Moon and Sixpence'' (1942) * '' Five Graves to Cairo'' (1943) * '' Casanova Brown'' (1944) * '' The Hour Before the Dawn'' (1944) * ''
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek ''The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'' is a 1944 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall. Brian Donlevy and A ...
'' (1944) * '' Hail the Conquering Hero'' (1944) * ''
Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay from James M. Cain's Double Indemnity (novel), novel of the same na ...
'' (1944) * '' The Unseen'' (1945) * '' The Lost Weekend'' (1945) * '' Home Sweet Homicide'' (1946) * '' The Well-Groomed Bride'' (1946) * '' The Imperfect Lady'' (1947) * ''
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
'' (1947) * '' Wild Harvest'' (1947) * ''
Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
'' (1948) * '' On Our Merry Way'' (1948) * '' Night Has a Thousand Eyes'' (1948) * '' The Big Clock'' (1948) * '' Beyond Glory'' (1948) * '' Chicago Deadline'' (1949) * '' The Great Gatsby'' (1949) * '' Sunset Boulevard'' (1950) * '' Captain Carey, U.S.A.'' (1950) * '' Molly'' (1950) * '' Appointment with Danger'' (1951) * '' When Worlds Collide'' (1951) * '' Dear Brat'' (1951) * '' The Iron Mistress'' (1952) * '' The Savage'' (1952) * '' The San Francisco Story'' (1952) * '' Invaders from Mars'' (1953) * ''
Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...
'' (1953) * '' Desert Legion'' (1953) * '' Fort Algiers'' (1953) * '' The Rocket Man'' (1954) * '' Rogue Cop'' (1954) * ''
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
'' (1954) * '' Many Rivers to Cross'' (1955) * '' The McConnell Story'' (1955) * '' Hell on Frisco Bay'' (1956) * '' A Cry in the Night'' (1956) * '' The Big Land'' (1956) * ''
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
'' (1956) * '' The Deep Six'' (1958) * '' The Badlanders'' (1958) * '' The Man in the Net'' (1959) * '' Island of Lost Women'' (1959) * '' Guns of the Timberland'' (1960) Source:Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to World Film, since 1885.'' 2008
Index home page


Accolades

* Look Magazine Award: Cinematography The Lost Weekend; 1946 * ASC Monthly Film Award: Sunset Blvd.; August 1950 * George Eastman House Medal of Honor: (Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Motion Pictures 1915–1925); 1955 Nominations *
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
: Oscar, Best Cinematography, ''The Divine Lady''; 1930. Note: No official nominees had been announced this year. * Academy Awards: Oscar, Cinematography, Black-and-White, ''Five Graves to Cairo''; 1944. * Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, ''Double Indemnity''; 1945. * Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, ''The Lost Weekend''; 1946. * Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; ''Sunset Blvd.''; 1951. * Golden Globes: Golden Globe Award, Best Cinematography, Black and White, ''Sunset Blvd.''; 1951. * Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Color; ''When Worlds Collide'', shared with: W. Howard Greene; 1952. * Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; ''Rogue Cop''; 1955.


References


External links

* *
John F. Seitz
at Film Reference
John F. Seitz
short film clips of his cinematography work at
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seitz, John F. 1892 births 1979 deaths American cinematographers People from Chicago Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City Presidents of the American Society of Cinematographers