William H. Daniels | |
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 Promotional portrait | |
| Born | William H. Daniels (1901-12-01)December 1, 1901 |
| Died | June 14, 1970(1970-06-14) (aged 68) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery,Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Cinematographer |
| Years active | 1919–1970 |
| Spouse | Betty Lee Gaston (1903-1985) |
| Children | 3 |
William H. DanielsASC (December 1, 1901 – June 14, 1970) was a film cinematographer who was best-known as actressGreta Garbo's personal lensman.[1]Daniels served as the cinematographer on all but three of Garbo's films during her tenure atMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, includingTorrent (1926),The Mysterious Lady (1928),The Kiss (1929),Anna Christie (1930),Grand Hotel (1932),Queen Christina (1933),Anna Karenina (1935),Camille (1936) andNinotchka (1939).[2]Early in his career, Daniels worked regularly with directorErich von Stroheim,[3] providing cinematography for such films asThe Devil's Pass Key (1920) andGreed (1924). Daniels went on to win anAcademy Award for Best Cinematography for his work onThe Naked City (1948).
Daniels was born inCleveland, Ohio, in 1901.[4] He completed his higher education at theUniversity of Southern California (USC).[5]
His career as a cinematographer extended fifty years from the silent filmFoolish Wives (1922) toMove (1970), although he was an uncredited camera operator on two earlier films (1919 and 1920). His major films includedThe Naked City (1948), filmed on the streets of New York, for which he won anAcademy Award for Best Cinematography. He also was associate producer of a few films in the 1960s and was President ofAmerican Society of Cinematographers (1961–63).[6]
Daniels onMerry-Go-Round (1923): “In the big banquet scene, Stroheim had all the extras playing Austrian officersreally drunk; he served real champagne by the bucketful and whiskey as well. A girl stepped naked out of a punchbowl…Merry-Go-Round was a disaster for Stroheim.”[7]
By 1918 he was promoted to a first camera operator atUniversal Pictures. There he initially worked in an uncredited capacity, including the shooting ofErich von Stroheim’s debut film,Blind Husbands (1919).[8]
Daniels provided the photography for director von Stroheim’s most iconicMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions of the 1920s, among themFoolish Wives (1922),Greed (1925), andThe Merry Widow (1925).[9]
Von Stroheim’sGreed involved six weeks of shooting inDeath Valley in July and August of 1925, with the entire cast and crew on site. Daniel endured the heat and lack of amenities without complaint.[10] Photographically, his greatest challenge shootingGreed was integrating transitions from natural outdoor lighting with illuminated interiors that von Stroheim demanded in the famous marriage sequence shot in San Francisco: “[B]alancing the exposure was hell” Daniels recalled. He registered dismay with the director’s obsession for “realism” requiring that an underground mining sequence be shot in an actual shaft at a depth 3000 feet (915 meters), rather than near the surface, either of which would have produced the same visual effect. Daniels ended his association with von Stroheim after completingThe Merry Widow in 1925.[11]
When the 19-year-old Swedish actressGreta Garbo first arrived under contract at MGM studios in 1924, Daniels was enlisted to conduct her screen tests, specifically close-ups. He recalled that “she didn’t speak a word of English and was terrifically shy.”[12] After completing this essential, but painstaking “ordeal,” Daniels insisted that Garbo would henceforth work exclusively on closed sets (director and crew only present), in an effort to ease the young actresses “constant stage fright” and allowing her to focus on performing.[13]
Daniels acted as cinematographer on 16 pictures starring Garbo, the firstThe Temptress (1926) and the last Camille (1936).[14][15]
In the famous sequence inQueen Christina (1933), in which Garbo “memorizes” the features of the bedroom where she has made love with Antonio (John Gilbert), Daniels credits von Stroheim’s influence for its success: “I think I learned the realism in this scene, the way of achieving it, from von Stroheim.”[16][17]
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