Lee Garmes,A.S.C. | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Garmes in 1937 | |
| Born | Lee Dewey Garmes (1898-05-27)May 27, 1898 Peoria, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 31, 1978(1978-08-31) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Cinematographer |
| Title | A.S.C. |
| Board member of | A.S.C. President (1960–1961) |
| Spouse | Ruth Hall (1933–his death) |
| Children | 2 daughters, Pamela and Carol |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Cinematography 1932Shanghai Express |
Lee Garmes,A.S.C. (May 27, 1898 – August 31, 1978) was an Americancinematographer. During his career, he worked with directorsHoward Hawks,Max Ophüls,Josef von Sternberg,Alfred Hitchcock,King Vidor,Nicholas Ray andHenry Hathaway, whom he had met as a young man when the two first came to Hollywood in thesilent era. He also co-directed two films with legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht:Angels Over Broadway andActors and Sin.[1]
Born in Peoria, Illinois, Garmes came to Hollywood in 1916. His first job was as an assistant in the paint department atThomas H. Ince Studios, but he soon became a camera assistant before graduating to full-time cameraman. His earliest films were comedy shorts, and his career did not fully take off until the introduction of sound films.
Garmes was married to film actressRuth Hall from 1933 until his death in 1978. He is interred in theGrand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Garmes was one of the early proponents ofvideo technology, which he advocated as early as 1972. That year, he had been hired byTechnicolor to photograph the short filmWhy, which was intended to test whether video was a viable technology for shooting feature films.
According toAmerican Cinematographer magazine, "Although officially unaccredited, Lee Garmes photographed a considerable portion ofGone with the Wind. Many consider the famous railroad yard sequence among his finest cinematic efforts."[2]
Declaring that his cinematography can be “followed like a thread” through films he photographed for various directors, Garmes acknowledged his debt to Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn:
Rembrandt has been my favorite artist. I’ve always used his technique of north light—of having my main source of light on the set coming from the north…And of course I’ve always followed Rembrandt in my fondness for low key. If you look at his paintings, you’ll see an awful lot of blacks. No strong highlights.[3]
Garmes was one of many Hollywood veterans from the silent era interviewed byKevin Brownlow for the television seriesHollywood (1980).[4]
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