Rudolph Maté (born January 21, 1898,Kraków,Austro-Hungarian Empire [now in Poland]—died October 27, 1964,Los Angeles,California, U.S.) was a Polish-born filmmaker who was best known for his work as a cinematographer, though he later had some success as a director.

Maté studied at the University of Budapest. His film career began in 1919, afterAlexander Korda hired him as an assistant cameraman. He worked in Berlin and Vienna before moving toFrance in the late 1920s, where he shot several ofCarl Theodor Dreyer’s most important pictures, includingLa Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928;The Passion of Joan of Arc), a silent-film classic, andVampyr (1932). Maté also photographedFritz Lang’sLiliom (1934) andRené Clair’sLa Dernier Milliardaire (1934;The Last Billionaire).

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In 1935 Maté moved to Hollywood, where he soon established himself as one of the industry’s most-gifted cinematographers. His first American film wasDante’s Inferno (1935), and he eventually shot more than 30 movies in Hollywood. He receivedAcademy Awardnominations for his work onForeign Correspondent (1940),That Hamilton Woman (1941),The Pride of the Yankees (1942),Sahara (1943), andCover Girl (1944). His other notable credits includedDodsworth (1936),Stella Dallas (1937),Love Affair (1939),My Favorite Wife (1940), andGilda (1946).

In 1947 Maté codirected (with Don Hartman)It Had to Be You, a comedy starringGinger Rogers. It was the last film for which he was noted as the cinematographer; he filmed parts ofOrson Welles’sThe Lady from Shanghai (1947), but his work was not credited. Maté subsequently focused ondirecting, and in 1948 he made his solo debut withThe Dark Past, a remake of the 1939Blind Alley. Thefilm noir featuredWilliam Holden as a disturbed killer who holds hostage a group, one of whom is a psychiatrist (Lee J. Cobb) intent on uncovering the roots of the killer’s violent behaviour. Far more impressive wasD.O.A. (1950), a noir that offeredEdmond O’Brien as a businessman slowly dying of poison who is racing against the clock to find out who wanted to kill him and why.D.O.A. is a model of stylish suspense made on a low budget.

Union Station (1950) was a suspense film, with Holden andBarry Fitzgerald as police officers on the trail of a kidnapper (played by Lyle Bettger), whileBranded (1950) was a formulaicAlan Laddwestern. Maté next madeThe Prince Who Was a Thief (1951), a light if colourful costume adventure starringTony Curtis andPiper Laurie. More successful wasWhen Worlds Collide (1951), an entertainingadaptation of ascience-fiction novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie. The picture was especially noted for its Oscar-nominatedspecial effects.

Little of Maté’s subsequent work was memorable. In 1952 he helmedPaula, asoap opera starringLoretta Young, on whose television series Maté would work in 1959–60.Second Chance (1953) was a passable noir originally released in3-D and starringRobert Mitchum, Linda Darnell, and Jack Palance.The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) featured real-life couple Curtis andJanet Leigh as amedieval knight and his highborn lady. Maté later made the westernThe Violent Men (1955), starringBarbara Stanwyck and Glenn Ford;The Far Horizons (1955), withFred MacMurray andCharlton Heston as a rather unconvincingMeriwether Lewis andWilliam Clark, respectively; and the tearjerkerMiracle in the Rain (1956), withJane Wyman as a lonely secretary who falls in love with a soldier (Van Johnson) and becomes inconsolable after his death.

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Maté’s last years were largely divided between such action spectacles asThe 300 Spartans (1962) and various European productions. His final film (codirected with Primo Zeglio) was the Italian productionIl dominatore dei sette mari (1962;Seven Seas to Calais), a swashbuckler withRod Taylor playingSir Francis Drake. Maté died of aheart attack in 1964.