Born in Newark, New Jersey on September 1, 1901, Harry Stradling was the nephew of Mary Pickford’s cinematographer, Walter Stradling. He came to Hollywood upon graduating high school in 1918 to apprentice under his uncle, but his uncle died suddenly on July 4, 1918 leaving him to seek work through his uncle’s connections. Known throughout his career as Harry Stradling, the Sr. was added to the fourteen-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner posthumously to avoid confusion with his Oscar nominated son, cinematographer Harry Stradling, Jr.

Although Stradling’s career began almost immediately, none of the films he made throughout the 1920s were prestige films. It wasn’t until the1930s when he went to work for Jacques Feyder in France that he developed a sterling reputation for his work on such films as Le Grand Jeu and Carnival in Flanders. Moving to England in the late 1930s, his reputation became enhanced with such films as Knight Without Armor, Pygamlion, The Citadel and Jamaica Inn.

Back in Hollywood, his reputation grew with his work on such fondly embraced films as The Devil and Miss Jones, Suspicion and The Human Comedy which earned him his first Oscar nomination. Two years later he won his first Oscar for 1945’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1946’s Till the Clouds Roll By established him as the go-to guy for lensing MGM musicals and he quickly followed it with The Pirate, Easter Parade, Words and Music and The Barkleys of Broadway, earning his third Oscar nomination for the latter.

Stradling’s 1950s output was extraordinary. In addition to A Streetcar Named Desire, Hans Christian Andersen, Guys and Dolls, The Eddy Duchin Story, Auntie Mame and The Young Philadelphians, all of which earned him Oscar nominations, he lensed Johnny Guitar, A Face in the Crowd, The Pajama Game and A Summer Place among others.

The 1960s proved equally prolific for Stradling whose films included his second Oscar win for My Fair Lady as well as nominations for A Majority of One, Gypsy, Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! . He also lensed such films as Five Finger Exercise, Mary, Mary, How to Murder Your Wife and Walk Don’t Run. He was also famously fired from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for trying to make Elizabeth Taylor look good.

Harry Stradling died of a heart attack half way through the filming of The Owl and the Pussycat on February 14, 1970. He was 68 years old. In addition to Harry Stradling, Jr., four other descendants have had successful Hollywood careers. His grandson by daughter Marilyn is Emmy winning writer James H. Brown. His great-granddaughter is Emmy nominated songwriter and producer Kelly Brown. Harry Jr.’s sons Bob and John Stradling are well-known cameramen.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945), directed by Albert Lewin

Stradling was known as the master of the soft focus, making the women in his films appear even more beautiful than they had in previous films. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, it was a man whose beauty had to come through as the central character in Oscar Wilde’s story stays young and attractive while his portrait hidden in an attic grows and old and decaying with the passage of time. He achieved this brilliantly while also bringing out the natural beauty of Donna Reed and Angela Lansbury as well as the cunning of villain George Sanders. He also brilliantly captures the picaresque beauty of Victorian England as well as its seedy side.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951), directed by Elia Kazan

Stradling captures the earthiness and moodiness of the back streets of New Orleans in this brilliantly acted film version of Tennessee Williams’ classic paly. You can feel the sweat and grime of the characters played by Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden and others as well as the porcelain beauty of the central character, an aging prima donna played brilliantly by Vivien Leigh.

Even though most of the scenes take place in a New Orleans flat, you forget that you are essentially watching a play. This was the pinnacle of Stradling’s black-and-white cinematography.

AUNTIE MAME (1958), directed by Morton Da Costa

It’s no wonder Rosalind Russell insisted on Stradling as her cinematographer on all four of her highly anticipated film versions of four important Broadway plays. He does a brilliant job of making the actress, then in her fifties, look more glamorous than she ever had, while sinking her teeth into the film versions of her own Auntie Mame as well as those of the very different Gertrude Berg in A Majority of One, Ethel Merman in Gypsy and Jessica Tandy in Five Finger Exercise. Stradling’s camerawork once again is so seemingly effortlessly effective in opening up stage-bound material that you forget you are basically watching a filmed stage-play.

MY FAIR LADY (1964), directed by George Cukor

Stradling won his second Oscar on his twelfth nomination for doing what he did best, magnificently photographing his actors, particularly leading lady Audrey Hepburn, and creating subtle camera movements that belie the fact that you are watching a photographed stage-play. This was particularly true of My Fair Lady which was very much a scene-by-scene capture of the world-famous musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.

Stradling, who had lensed the film version of Pygmalion in 1938, became one of the few, if not the only, cinematographer to lens both the film version of an original play and its musical remake.

FUNNY GIRL (1968), directed by William Wyler

Barbra Streisand, not exactly the most photogenic star to ever grace the silver screen, was so grateful for the job Stradling did in photographing her in her film debut in this film for which she won an Oscar, that she insisted on his being the cinematographer on all her films. He dutifully obliged with follow-up work on Hello, Dolly!, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and The Owl and the Pussycat, dying of a heart attack half way through the filming of the latter. He was replaced by Andrew Laszlo.

Harry Stradling Jr. became the cinematographer on Stresiand’s 1973 classic, The Way We Were.

HARRY STRADLING SR. AND OSCAR

• Nominated – Best Black-and-White Cinematography – The Human Comedy (1943)
• Oscar – Best Black-and-White Cinematography – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
• Nominated – Best Black-and-White Cinematography – A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – Guys and Dolls (1955)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – The Eddy Duchin Story (1955)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – Auntie Mame (1958)
• Nominated – Best Black-and-White Cinematography – The Young Philadelphians (1959)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – A Majority of One (1961)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – Gypsy (1962)
• Oscar – Best Color Cinematography – My Fair Lady (1964
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – Funny Girl (1968)
• Nominated – Best Color Cinematography – Hello, Dolly! (1969)