- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohann Altmann
- Starting out in 1924 as a lab technician at MGM, John Alton left there for Paramount to become a cameraman. He traveled to France and then to South America, where he wrote, photographed and directed several Spanish-language films. Returning to Hollywood in 1937, he soon achieved a reputation as one of the industry's most accomplished cinematographers. In 1951, he and Alfred Gilks won an Academy Award for color photography for An American in Paris (1951).- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- SpouseRozalia Kiss(? - 1987) (her death)
- In 1960, following his work on Elmer Gantry (1960), he quit the movie business. He returned briefly in 1966 to direct photography for the pilot episode of the TV series Mission: Impossible (1966). Afterwards, he virtually disappeared. For years, even his closest friends did not know his whereabouts. In 1984, his work was honored at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, with a tribute entitled, "Where is John Alton?" In 1993, at the age of 92, Alton heard about Visions of Light (1992), a documentary about cinematographers that included some of his movie work. He contacted the film's producer, Todd McCarthy, and asked to attend the premiere. McCarthy, who had hoped to include an interview with Alton in the film, was astonished to hear from him. Afterwards, Alton insisted that there was nothing mysterious in his disappearance, that he and his wife had simply decided to give up the movie business and travel a bit. They had lived in France, Germany, and Argentina, and had a great time. He died in 1996 at the age of 95.
- He became one of the most controversial cinematographers during the 1940s and 1950s in Hollywood, causing all of the MGM cinematographers to file a complaint with studio head Dore Schary and MGM exec E.J. Mannix and the AMPAS regarding his contribution to An American in Paris (1951). The charges were refuted by the film's director Vincente Minnelli and star 'Gene Kelly (I)' . Alton further incited the wrath of American cinematographers by charging that the use of light beds above the sets was not only unnatural but forced cinematographers to work more slowly. He was a brilliant iconoclast who was forced to work on low-budget features because of his flamboyant behavior, which was considered outside of the norm for a very flamboyant Hollywood.
- Although he had been a cinematographer since at least 1927, he didn't shoot his first color film until 1951, An American in Paris (1951) -- which got him an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
- In the early 1930s, Alton traveled to Argentina to help develop that country's film industry. He helped train several cinematographers and directors, photographed over 20 films himself, and even directed several.
- He was replaced after two weeks of shooting Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)) by Burnett Guffey.
- I stopped because I wanted to live. That was no life, to work at the studio, get up at six every morning and fight the producers. I had enough. I looked at my bank book and I said, 'That's it!'
- It's not what you light - it's what you DON'T light.
- There is no doubt in my mind that the most beautiful music is sad, and the most beautiful photography is in a low-key, with rich blacks.
- [in a 1994 interview] A few foreign and American films are outstanding, and since the public accepts the average films, it must be that they're right and I'm wrong. But it seems that producers once wanted more from the people who made pictures, and they became works of art.
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