Joseph Ruttenberg, A.S.C. (July 4, 1889 - May 1, 1983) was a photojournalist and cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

.

Ruttenberg was accomplished winning accolades. At MGM, Ruttenberg was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography

Academy Award for Best Cinematography

The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

 ten times, winning four. In addition, he won the 1954 Golden Globe Award

Golden Globe Award

The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

  for his camera work on the film Brigadoon

Brigadoon

Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Songs from the musical, such as "Almost Like Being in Love" have become standards....

.

Career

Born into a Jewish family in St. Petersburg, Russia, Joseph Ruttenberg was ten years old when his family emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. As a young man he went to work at the Boston Globe newspaper as a photojournalist but left in 1915 to accept a job with the Fox Film Corporation in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to train as a cinematographer. Two years later he was behind the camera for his first silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

--The Painted Madonna (1917)--in what would be a remarkably successful career.

In the late 1920s Ruttenberg went to work for Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 in New York. His first talkie assignment was The Struggle

The Struggle (film)

The Struggle is a sound feature film directed by D. W. Griffith, and was his only other full-sound film besides Abraham Lincoln . After several films directed by Griffith failed at the box office, this was Griffith's last film...

(1931), D.W. Griffith's final film. Then in 1934 Ruttenberg signed on with MGM, moving to Hollywood

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 where he was invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers

American Society of Cinematographers

The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...

.

Joseph Ruttenberg retired from MGM in 1968 and died in Los Angeles in 1983.

Filmography

• The Painted Madonna (1917)
• The Blue Streak (1917)
• The Slave (1917)
• Wife Number Two (1917)
• Thou Shalt Not Steal (1917)
• A Heart's Revenge (1917)
• The Debt of Honor (1918)
• Peg of the Pirates (1918)
• Doing Their Bit (1918)
• The Woman Who Gave (1918)
• The Yellow Dog (1918)
• Woman, Woman! (1919)
• A Fallen Idol (1919)
• My Little Sister (1919)
• The Shark (1920)
• From Now On (1920)
• The Tiger's Club (1920)
• The Thief (1920)
• The Mountain Woman (1921)
• Know Your Men (1921)
• A Virgin Paradise (1921)
• Beyond Price (1921)
• Silver Wings (1922)
• The Town That Forgot God (1922)
• Who Are My Parents? (1922)
• My Friend the Devil (1922)
• If Winter Comes (1923)
• Does It Pay? (1923)
• School for Wives (1925)
• The Fool (1925)
• My Friend, the Devil (1922)
• Silver Wings (1922)
• The Town That Forgot God (1922)
• Does It Pay? (1923)
• If Winter Comes (1923)
• The Fool (1925)
• School for Wives (1925)
• Summer Bachelors (1926)
• The Struggle
  The Struggle (film)
  The Struggle is a sound feature film directed by D. W. Griffith, and was his only other full-sound film besides Abraham Lincoln . After several films directed by Griffith failed at the box office, this was Griffith's last film...
  
  (1931)
• The Knife of the Party
  The Knife of the Party
  The Knife of the Party is a black-and-white short film starring Shemp Howard and released on February 16, 1934. The comedy was filmed at Van Beuren Studios and released by RKO Radio Pictures.-Shemp Howard and his Stooges:...
  
  (1934)
• Woman in the Dark (1934)
• The People's Enemy (1935)
• Frankie and Johnnie (1935)
• Gigolette (1935)
• Three Godfathers (1936)
• Mad Holiday (1936)
• Fury (1936)
• Man Hunt (1936)
• Picadilly Jim (1936)
• Big City (1937)
• Everybody Sing (1937)
• A Day at the Races (1937)
• Dramatic School (1938)
• The Great Waltz
  The Great Waltz
  The Great Waltz is a musical conceived by Hassard Short with a book by Moss Hart and lyrics by Desmond Carter, using themes by Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. It is based on a pasticcio by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Julius Bittner called Walzer aus Wien, first performed in Vienna in 1930...
  
  (1938)
• Three Comrades
  Three Comrades (film)
  Three Comrades 1938 is a drama film directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for MGM. The screenplay is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore Jr., and was adapted from the novel Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque...
  
  (1938)
• Spring Madness (1938)
• The First Hundred Years (1938)
• The Shopworn Angel
  The Shopworn Angel
  The Shopworn Angel is a 1938 American drama film directed by H.C. Potter. The MGM release featured the second screen pairing of Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart following their successful teaming in the Universal Pictures production Next Time We Love two years earlier...
  
  (1938)
• On Borrowed Time (1939)
• Balalaika (1939)
• The Women
  The Women (1939 film)
  The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...
  
  (1939)
• The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
• Tell No Tales (1939)
• Comrade X
  Comrade X
  Comrade X is a 1940 lighthearted spy movie, starring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr and directed by King Vidor.-Plot summary:In the Soviet Union, American reporter McKinley "Mac" Thompson secretly writes unflattering stories, attributed to "Comrade X", for his newspaper...
  
  (1940)
• Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• Waterloo Bridge
  Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)
  Waterloo Bridge is a 1940 remake of the 1931 film of the same title, adapted from the 1930 play of the same title.The film was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sidney Franklin and Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay is by S. N. Behrman, Hans Rameau and George...
  
  (1940)

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)
  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...
  
  (1941)
• Ziegfeld Girl
  Ziegfeld Girl (film)
  Ziegfeld Girl is a 1941 American film starring James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner, and co-starring Tony Martin, Jackie Cooper, Eve Arden, and Philip Dorn. Released by MGM, it was directed by Robert Z...
  
  (1941)
• Two-Faced Woman
  Two-Faced Woman
  Two-Faced Woman is a romantic comedy made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Greta Garbo, in her final film role, and Melvyn Douglas, with Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Ruth Gordon...
  
  (1941)
• Woman of the Year
  Woman of the Year
  Woman of the Year is a romantic comedy film. The movie is about an emancipated woman, chosen "Woman of the Year", and her colleague-turned-husband and their efforts to negotiate a path to marital bliss....
  
  (1942)
• Crossroads
  Crossroads (1942 film)
  Crossroads is a 1942 mystery film directed by Jack Conway, starring William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor and Basil Rathbone. Powell plays a diplomat whose amnesia about his past comes back to trouble him...
  
  (1942)
• Random Harvest (1942)
• Mrs. Miniver
  Mrs. Miniver (film)
  Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright. Based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture,...
  
  (1942)
• Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
• Madame Curie
  Madame Curie (film)
  Madame Curie is a 1943 biographical film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sidney Franklin from a screenplay by Paul Osborn, Paul H. Rameau, and Aldous Huxley , adapted from the biography by Eve Curie....
  
  (1943)
• Mrs. Parkington (1944)
• Gaslight
  Gaslight (1944 film)
  Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play, Gas Light, performed as Angel Street on Broadway in 1941. It was the second version to be filmed; the first, released in the United Kingdom, had been made a mere four years earlier...
  
  (1944)
• The Valley of Decision
  The Valley of Decision
  The Valley of Decision is a film set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA in the late 19th century. It tells the story of a young Irish house maid who falls in love with the son of her employer, a local steel mill owner...
  
  (1945)
• Adventure (1945)
• My Brother Talks to Horses (1946)
• Killer McCoy (1947)
• Beloved Stranger (1947)
• Julia Misbehaves (1948)
• B.F.'s Daughter (1948)
• That Forsyte Woman
  That Forsyte Woman
  That Forsyte Woman is a 1949 romance film starring Greer Garson, Errol Flynn, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Young and Janet Leigh...
  
  (1949)
• The Bribe
  The Bribe
  The Bribe is an American crime film noir directed by Robert Z. Leonard and written by Marguerite Roberts, based on a story written by Frederick Nebel...
  
  (1949)
• Side Street (1949)
• The Miniver Story
  The Miniver Story
  The Miniver Story is a 1950 film sequel to the successful 1942 film Mrs. Miniver.Like its predecessor, it was made by MGM and starred Greer Garson in the title role, but it was filmed on location in England. The film was directed by H.C. Potter and produced by Sidney Franklin, from a screenplay by...
  
  (1950)
• The Magnificent Yankee (1950)
• The Big Hangover (1950)
• Cause for Alarm! (1950)
• Kind Lady (1951)
• It's a Big Country (1951)
• Too Young to Kiss (1951)
• The Great Caruso
  The Great Caruso
  The Great Caruso is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig. The original music was by Johnny Green and the cinematography by...
  
  (1951)
• The Prisoner of Zenda
  The Prisoner of Zenda (1952 film)
  The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1952 film version of the classic novel of the same name by Anthony Hope and a remake of the famous 1937 film version. This version was made by Loew's and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S...
  
  (1952)
• Young Mam With Ideas (1952)
• Because You're Mine
  Because You're Mine
  This article is about the 1952 musical comedy film. For other uses see Because You're Mine .Because You're Mine is a 1952 musical comedy film starring Mario Lanza. Directed by Alexander Hall, the film also stars Doretta Morrow, James Whitmore, and Dean Miller.-Plot:Opera singer superstar Renato...
  
  (1952)
• Small Town Girl (1952)
• Julius Caesar
  Julius Caesar (1953 film)
  Julius Caesar is an 1953 MGM film adaptation of the play by Shakespeare, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the uncredited screenplay, and produced by John Houseman. The original music score is by Miklós Rózsa...
  
  (1953)
• The Great Diamond Robbery (1953)
• Latin Lovers
  Latin Lovers (1953 film)
  Latin Lovers is a Technicolor 1953 romantic musical comedy film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and written by Isobel Lennart...
  
  (1953)
• Invitation to the Dance
  Invitation to the Dance (film)
  Invitation to the Dance is a 1956 anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly.The film is unusual in that it has no spoken dialogue, with the characters performing their roles entirely through dance and mime...
  
  (1954)
• Her Twelve Men (1954)
• The Last Time I Saw Paris
  The Last Time I Saw Paris
  The Last Time I Saw Paris is a 1954 romantic drama made by MGM. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited." It was directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Jack Cummings and filmed on locations in Paris and the MGM backlot. The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein,...
  
  (1954)
• Brigadoon
  Brigadoon (film)
  Brigadoon is a 1954 MGM musical feature film made in CinemaScope and Ansco Color based on the Broadway musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse...
  
  (1954)
• Interrupted Melody (1955)
• The Prodigal (1955)
• Kismet
  Kismet (1955 film)
  Kismet is an American musical film in Cinemascope and Eastman Color released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is the fourth movie version of Kismet—the first was released in 1920 and the second in 1930 by Warner Brothers—and the second released by MGM...
  
  (1955)
• Somebody Up There Likes Me
  Somebody Up There Likes Me (film)
  Somebody Up There Likes Me is a 1956 American drama film based on the life of middleweight boxing legend Rocky Graziano. Joseph Ruttenberg was awarded a 1956 Oscar in the category of Best Cinematography . The film also won the Oscar for Best Art Direction Somebody Up There Likes Me is a 1956...
  
  (1956)
• The Swan
  The Swan (film)
  The Swan is a 1956 remake by MGM of a 1925 Paramount film with the same title. . The film is a romantic comedy directed by Charles Vidor, produced by Dore Schary from a screenplay by John Dighton based on the play by Ferenc Molnár...
  
  (1956)
• Until They Sail
  Until They Sail
  Until They Sail is a 1957 American black and white CinemaScope drama film directed by Robert Wise. The screenplay by Robert Anderson, based on a story by James A. Michener included in his 1951 anthology Return to Paradise, focuses on four New Zealand sisters and their relationships with U.S...
  
  (1957)
• Man On Fire (1957
• The Vintage (1957)
• Gigi
  Gigi (1958 film)
  Gigi is a 1958 musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette...
  
  (1958)
• The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
• Green Mansions (1959)
• The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)
• BUtterfield 8
  BUtterfield 8
  BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 Metrocolor drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor, then 28 years old, won an Academy Award for her performance...
  
  (1960)
• The Subterraneans (1960)
• Two Loves (1961)
• Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
• Ada
  Ada (film)
  Ada is a 1961 political drama film made by Avon Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Daniel Mann and produced by...
  
  (1961)
• Who's Got the Action?
  Who's Got the Action?
  Who's Got the Action? is a comedy film about a man suffering from an addiction to gambling starring Dean Martin, Lana Turner, Eddie Albert, and Walter Matthau...
  
  (1962)
• The Hook (1962)
• A Global Affair (1963)
• It Happened at the World's Fair
  It Happened at the World's Fair
  It Happened at the World's Fair is a 1963 musical film starring Elvis Presley as a cropdusting pilot.The motion picture was filmed in Seattle, Washington, site of the Century 21 Exposition, the 1962 World's Fair. The governor of Washington at the time, Albert Rosellini, suggested the setting to...
  
  (1963)
• Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963)
• Harlow
  Harlow (film)
  Harlow is a biographical film about the life of film star Jean Harlow. It stars Carroll Baker in the title role. It was released in 1965 by Paramount Pictures, shortly after another film with the same title and subject...
  
  (1965)
• Sylvia (1965)
• Love Has Many Faces (1965)
• The Oscar
  The Oscar (film)
  The Oscar is a 1966 American drama film, written by Harlan Ellison, Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse and Richard Sale, directed by Rouse and starring Stephen Boyd, singer Tony Bennett , comedian Milton Berle , Elke Sommer, Ernest Borgnine, Jill St. John, and Eleanor Parker...
  
  (1966)
• Speedway
  Speedway (film)
  Speedway is a 1968 action film musical film starring Elvis Presley as a racecar driver and Nancy Sinatra as his love interest.Scenes were shot at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina...
  
  (1968)

Awards

Academy Awards wins:

• The Great Waltz
  The Great Waltz
  The Great Waltz is a musical conceived by Hassard Short with a book by Moss Hart and lyrics by Desmond Carter, using themes by Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. It is based on a pasticcio by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Julius Bittner called Walzer aus Wien, first performed in Vienna in 1930...
  
  (1938)
• Mrs. Miniver
  Mrs. Miniver (film)
  Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright. Based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture,...
  
  (1942)
• Somebody Up There Likes Me
  Somebody Up There Likes Me (film)
  Somebody Up There Likes Me is a 1956 American drama film based on the life of middleweight boxing legend Rocky Graziano. Joseph Ruttenberg was awarded a 1956 Oscar in the category of Best Cinematography . The film also won the Oscar for Best Art Direction Somebody Up There Likes Me is a 1956...
  
  (1956)
• Gigi
  Gigi (1958 film)
  Gigi is a 1958 musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette...
  
  (1958)

Golden Globe Award

Golden Globe Award

The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 win:

• Brigadoon (1954)

Academy Award nominations:

• Waterloo Bridge
  Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)
  Waterloo Bridge is a 1940 remake of the 1931 film of the same title, adapted from the 1930 play of the same title.The film was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sidney Franklin and Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay is by S. N. Behrman, Hans Rameau and George...
  
  (1940)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)
  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...
  
  (1941)
• Madame Curie (1943)
• Gaslight
  Gaslight (1944 film)
  Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play, Gas Light, performed as Angel Street on Broadway in 1941. It was the second version to be filmed; the first, released in the United Kingdom, had been made a mere four years earlier...
  
  (1944)
• Julius Caesar
  Julius Caesar (1953 film)
  Julius Caesar is an 1953 MGM film adaptation of the play by Shakespeare, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the uncredited screenplay, and produced by John Houseman. The original music score is by Miklós Rózsa...
  
  (1953)
• Butterfield 8
  BUtterfield 8
  BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 Metrocolor drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor, then 28 years old, won an Academy Award for her performance...
  
  (1960)

Publications

• "Photographing Pre-Production Tests," in American Cinematographer
  American Cinematographer
  American Cinematographer is a monthly magazine published by the American Society of Cinematographers.American Cinematographer focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, going behind the scenes on domestic and international productions of all shapes and sizes...
  
  (Hollywood), January 1956.
• "Sound-Stage Sea Saga," in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), April 1960.
• Positif (Paris), September 1972.
• Seminar in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), July 1975.
• Focus on Film (London), Spring 1976.
• In Dance in the Hollywood Musical, by Jerome Delamater, Ann Arbor, Michigan
  Ann Arbor, Michigan
  Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
  
  , 1981.
• Film History (Philadelphia), vol. 1, no. 1, 1987.

External links

..

• Joseph Ruttenberg: eight film trailers at Spike TV
  Spike TV
  Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
  
   (iFilm
  IFilm
  ifilm.com was an online archive of short films, movie trailers, and other video clips of interest. Ifilm.com was originally founded by independent filmmaker Raphael Raphael in 1997 as an independent film and media collective...
  
  ).