Joseph Biroc

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Joseph Biroc
Born	Joseph Francis Biroc (1903-02-12)February 12, 1903 New York City, U.S.
Died	September 7, 1996(1996-09-07) (aged 93) Woodland Hills, California, US
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1927–1989

Joseph Francis Biroc, ASC (February 12, 1903 – September 7, 1996) was an American cinematographer. He was born in New York City and began working in films at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After working there for approximately six years, he moved to Los Angeles. Once in Southern California, Biroc worked at the RKO Pictures movie studio. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and filmed the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. In 1950, Biroc left RKO Pictures and freelanced on projects at various studios. In addition to his film work, which included It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), Biroc worked on various television series, including the Adventures of Superman and Wonder Woman. He frequently collaborated with film director Robert Aldrich.

Biroc won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Towering Inferno (1974), which he shared with Fred J. Koenekamp, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for the TV movie Brian's Song and one for the series Casablanca.^{[citation needed]}

Joseph Francis Biroc was born on February 12, 1903, in New York City, New York.^[1] He developed a passion about film in his childhood.^[2] He saw his "first movie in 1910 on a vacant lot five blocks from his home" and knew from then he wanted to spend the rest of his life making movies.^[3]

At the age of fifteen, with his uncle's help, Biroc began his career in film as a film lab technician with Paragon Labs in Fort Lee, New Jersey in 1918. The apprenticeship marked the beginning of a series of jobs at numerous laboratories for Biroc – which was then a required step for aspiring cinematographers.^[4]

Two years later, he started working at Craftsman Labs in New York from 1920 to 1923 and shortly for Goldwyn Pictures in Culver City, California in 1923. After his time at Goldwyn Pictures, Biroc returned to New York and took a job as film printer for Famous Players–Lasky, where he was shortly after promoted to assistant cameraman. After Famous Players–Lasky shut down in 1927, Biroc moved to Los Angeles to work for United Artists prior to moving to RKO to work as a camera operator. Biroc started at RKO by serving as assistant to cinematographers Leo Tover, Robert De Grasse, and Edward Cronjager. During his time at RKO, Biroc worked on Cimarron (1931), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). He also worked on A Woman Rebels (1936), Sylvia Scarlett (1935), and Five Came Back (1939)^[2] (among others), but received no screen credit as RKO hardly credited camera operators. His last work before World War II was for Bombardier (1943).

In 1943, Biroc began his career as a motion picture cameraman in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Two years later, he filmed the brutalities at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany while serving as captain of the sixth detachment alongside George Stevens's Special Motion Picture Coverage Unit. The end of the war marked a significant period in Biroc's life as he achieved the rank of captain and eventually, the rank of major. He also obtained his first credit as cinematographer for It's A Wonderful Life (1946). Following this, Biroc “served as cinematographer for the first 3-D American feature length film in color” titled Bwana Devil (1952).

In 1952, Biroc began his association with producer-director Robert Aldrich, starting with shooting an episode of The Doctor and moving onto films such as Attack (1956), World for Ransom (1954), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte for which Biroc received his first Oscar nomination, The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), and The Longest Yard (1974). Biroc also “shot film for network television early on, such as musical shorts featuring Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, and Louis Armstrong"^[2] – a feat considered rare for cameramen during the time period. During the majority of the 1950s, Biroc focused on television – both black and white and color. Biroc concluded his career in the 1970s and 1980s with work on television movies, specials, and miniseries.^{[citation needed]}

Biroc worked alongside four-time Oscar nominated cinematographer Joseph Walker in filming It's A Wonderful Life (1946) and achieved his first on-screen credit for his contribution.^[2]

Biroc was the cinematographer for the first feature-length 3-D color film in history, Bwana Devil (1952). He writes in an article for the American Cinematographer, “while other 3-D systems have employed dual cameras, none have pursued the theory that the 3-D cameras should see and record the scene exactly as the human eyes see it.” (336, August 1952). He goes on to explain how Natural Vision, the corporation he worked with, provided a different experience with 3-D pictures as it induced no eye strain.^[5]

Biroc wrote an article for American Cinematographer where he explained the process behind filming the series Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977). In the article he mentions how the producers of the movie wanted the sets to look like actual locations, so each set had to have a big ceiling on it. He also mentions how he achieved a widespread shot for a scene – “we used a hospital chair as a dolly…we put a board across the handles of the wheelchair and the camera operator sat on the board.”^[6]

Biroc worked with director Wim Wenders and producers Fred Roos, Ronald Colby, and Don Guest to achieve a classic lighting look for Hammett (1982). He stated in an interview with Richard Patterson for American Cinematographer, “Actually the way I photograph is the way they photographed 40, 50, 60, 80 years ago. It's just basic lighting and basic photography.”^[7]

Biroc “was survived by one sister, Agnes Kronmeyer [who passed away in 2017] of Cranford, NJ, and four grandchildren.”^[3]

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1929	The Rescue	Herbert Brenon	Co-cinematographer with George Barnes & James Wong Howe
1943	Bombardier	Richard Wallace
1946	It's a Wonderful Life	Frank Capra
1947	Magic Town	William A. Wellman
1948	On Our Merry Way	Leslie Fenton King Vidor
	My Dear Secretary	Charles Martin
1949	Roughshod	Mark Robson
	Johnny Allegro	Ted Tetzlaff
	Mrs. Mike	Louis King
1950	The Killer That Stalked New York	Earl McEvoy
1951	Cry Danger	Robert Parrish
	The Bushwhackers	Rod Amateau
	All That I Have	William F. Claxton
1952	Red Planet Mars	Harry Horner
	Bwana Devil	Arch Oboler
	Loan Shark	Seymour Friedman
	Without Warning!	Arnold Laven
1953	The Tall Texan	Elmo Williams
	The Glass Wall	Maxwell Shane
	The Twonky	Arch Oboler
	Vice Squad	Arnold Laven
	Donovan's Brain	Felix E. Feist
1954	World for Ransom	Robert Aldrich
	Down Three Dark Streets	Arnold Laven
1956	Nightmare	Maxwell Shane
	Attack	Robert Aldrich
	Tension at Table Rock	Charles Marquis Warren
1957	Run of the Arrow	Samuel Fuller
	Forty Guns	Samuel Fuller
	The Amazing Colossal Man	Bert I. Gordon
1959	The Bat	Crane Wilbur
	The FBI Story	Mervyn LeRoy
1960	13 Ghosts	William Castle
1961	The Devil at 4 O'Clock	Mervyn LeRoy
	Gold of Seven Saints	Gordon Douglas
1963	Under the Yum Yum Tree	David Swift
	Toys In The Attic	George Roy Hill
	Bye Bye Birdie	George Sidney
	Gunfight at Comanche Creek	Frank McDonald
1964	Ride the Wild Surf	Don Taylor
	Kitten with a Whip	Douglas Heyes
1964	Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte	Robert Aldrich	Nominated- Academy Award for Best Cinematography
	Viva Las Vegas	George Sidney
1965	The Flight of the Phoenix	Robert Aldrich
	I Saw What You Did	William Castle
1967	Enter Laughing	Carl Reiner
	Tony Rome	Gordon Douglas
	Fitzwilly	Delbert Mann
1968	The Killing of Sister George	Robert Aldrich
	The Detective	Gordon Douglas
	The Legend of Lylah Clare	Robert Aldrich
	What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?	Lee H. Katzin
1970	Too Late the Hero	Robert Aldrich
	Mrs. Pollifax-Spy	Leslie H. Martinson
1971	Escape from the Planet of the Apes	Don Taylor
	The Grissom Gang	Robert Aldrich
1972	Ulzana's Raid
	Emperor of the North Pole
1973	Cahill U.S. Marshal	Andrew V. McLaglen
1974	Blazing Saddles	Mel Brooks
	The Towering Inferno	John Guillermin	Co-cinematographer with Fred J. Koenekamp Academy Award for Best Cinematography
	The Longest Yard	Robert Aldrich
	Shanks	William Castle
1975	Hustle	Robert Aldrich
1977	The Choirboys
1978	Little Women	David Lowell Rich
	A Family Upside Down
1979	Beyond the Poseidon Adventure	Irwin Allen
1980	Airplane!	Jim Abrahams David Zucker Jerry Zucker
1981	...All the Marbles	Robert Aldrich
1982	Hammett	Wim Wenders	Co-cinematographer with Philip H. Lathrop
	Airplane II: The Sequel	Ken Finkleman

Year	Title	Notes
1950	Dick Tracy	5 episodes
1952	China Smith	Episode: "Straight Settlement"
	Four Star Playhouse	Episode: "The Officer and the Lady"
1953	I'm the Law	14 episodes
1954	The Mickey Rooney Show	5 episodes
	Dear Phoebe	Episode: "The Christmas Show"
	The Lone Wolf	3 episodes
	Police Call	Episode: "Montreal"
1954-55	Treasury Men in Action	12 episodes
1955	The Man Behind the Badge	Episode: "The Case of the Hunted Hobo"
	My Friend Flicka	Episode: "The Stranger"
	Screen Directors Playhouse	Episode: "The Final Tribute"
1955-56	TV Reader's Digest	3 episodes
1956	General Electric Summer Originals	Episode: "It's Sunny Again"
1956-58	Adventures of Superman	26 episodes
1957	General Electric Theater	Episode: "Mr. Kensington's Finest Hour"
	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Episode: "Silent Witness"
1957-58	Playhouse 90	3 episodes
1958	The Thin Man	Episode: "Unlucky Lucky Numbers"
	Hey, Jeannie!	Episode: "The Landlord"
	Alcoa Theatre	2 episodes
1959	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	Episode: "Checkmate"
	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	4 episodes
	The David Niven Show	Episode: "The Twist of the Key"
	The Detectives	Episode: "The Streger Affair"
1959-60	Hotel de Paree	2 episodes
1960	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Episode: "Escape"
	Goodyear Theatre	Episode: "Author at Work"
1960-61	Checkmate	3 episodes
1962-63	Empire	4 episodes
1964	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Episode: "The Vulcan Affair"
1972	Ghost Story	Episode: "The New House"
1976	The Moneychangers	Miniseries Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie
1977	Washington: Behind Closed Doors
1978	Little Women
1980	Scruples	Miniseries
1983	Casablanca	5 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series
1985	A Death in California	Miniseries Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie
	Hell Town	Episode: "Father of Hell Town"

Year	Title	Notes
1956	Cavalry Patrol	Failed pilot
1958	The Adventures of Superpup
1971	Brian's Song	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie
1972	Gidget Gets Married
	Playmates
	The Crooked Hearts
1974	Wonder Woman	Failed pilot
	Honky Tonk
	Thursday's Game
1977	SST: Death Flight
1978	A Family Upside Down	Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie
	The Clone Master
1980	Kenny Rogers as The Gambler
1982	Desperate Lives
1984	The Jerk, Too
1986	Outrage!
	A Winner Never Quits
1987	Time Out for Dad

Refs:^[1]

• Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Black & White) nomination (1964; b&w) for Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte
• Emmy Award (1972) for Brian's Song
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography - ABC Movie of the Week (1972)^[8]
• Academy Award for Best Cinematography won (1974; shared) for The Towering Inferno
• Emmy Award nomination (1977) for The Moneychangers [Part 1]
• Emmy Award nomination (1978) for Washington: Behind Closed Doors [Part 1] & A Family Upside Down
• Emmy Award nomination (1979) for Little Women [Part 2]
• Emmy Award nomination (1980) for Kenny Rogers as the Gambler
• Emmy Award (1983) for Casablanca [episode The Master Builder's Woman]
• Emmy Award nomination (1985) for A Death in California
• ASC Lifetime Achievement Award (1988)^[9]

• "Hollywood Launches 3-D Production," in American Cinematographer(Hollywood), August 1952.
• "Photographing Washington: Behind Closed Doors," in American Cinematographer(Hollywood), November 1977.
• American Cinematographer(Hollywood), July 1981.
• Focus on Film(London), no. 13, 1973.
• Patterson, R., on Hammettin American Cinematographer(Hollywood), November 1982.
• Basinger, Jeanine, in TheIt's a Wonderful Life Book, 1987.
• American Cinematographer(Hollywood), March 1989.
• Obituary, in American Cinematographer(Hollywood), November 1996.
• Obituary, in Cinefantastique(Forest Park), vol. 28, no. 6, 1996.

• Joseph Biroc at the Internet Movie Database
• Joseph Biroc papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Biography/film work