Conrad Hall
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Conrad Hall, A.S.C. | |||||||||||
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Born | Conrad L. Hall June 21, 1926 Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia |
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Died | January 4, 2003 (aged 76) Santa Monica, California |
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Years active | 1958 - 2003 | ||||||||||
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Conrad L. Hall, A.S.C. (June 21, 1926 – January 4, 2003) was a top-billed Hollywood cinematographer and three-time Academy Award-winner.
Born in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, he was the son of writer James Norman Hall and Sarah (Lala) Winchester Hall, who was part-Polynesian. Hall attended the University of Southern California intending to study journalism but drifted instead to the university's cinema school, from which he graduated in 1949. He worked on documentaries, in television (The Outer Limits) and minor films (including cult classic Incubus), and as a studio camera operator before moving up to cinematographer in major studio films in the mid [1960s].
He received three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography: for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), American Beauty (1999), and Road to Perdition (2002) (the last two directed by friend Sam Mendes). The thirty-year gap between his first two Oscars is a record for this award.
Additionally, he was nominated for Morituri (1965), The Professionals (1966), In Cold Blood (1967), The Day of the Locust (1975), Tequila Sunrise (1988), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), and A Civil Action (1998).
Hall died in 2003 due to complications from bladder cancer. His Oscar nomination and award for his work on Road to Perdition were posthumous, and his award was accepted by his son, Conrad W. Hall, who is also a cinematographer. Road to Perdition is dedicated to Conrad L Hall.
Hall was and still is affectionately referred to as "Connie" by his peers and associates.