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James Wong Howe is a Actor, Director, Director of Photography and Cinematography American born on 27 august 1899 at Guangzhou (Chine)

James Wong Howe

James Wong Howe
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Birth name Wong Tung Jim
Nationality USA
Birth 27 august 1899 at Guangzhou (Chine)
Death 12 july 1976 (at 76 years) at Hollywood (USA)
Awards Academy Award for Best Cinematography

James Wong Howe, A.S.C. (Chinese 黃宗霑; pinyin: Huáng Zōngzhān; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976) was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. He was a master at the use of shadow and was one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography, in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus.

During the 1930s and 1940s he was one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood. He was nominated for ten Academy Awards for cinematography, winning twice. Howe was judged to be one of history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.

Biography

Sa famille émigre aux États-Unis en 1904. Naturalisé américain, sous le nom de James Wong Howe, il débute au cinéma comme « clap-boy » puis premier ou deuxième assistant opérateur, de 1919 à 1922. Il est ensuite chef opérateur, sur plus de 130 films, entre 1923 et 1975. Il est considéré comme un des pionniers de l'industrie cinématographique hollywoodienne, à l'instar de son collègue Gregg Toland, notamment pour son travail sur la profondeur de champ et sur les effets d'ombre et de lumière, particulièrement mis en valeur avec sa photographie en noir et blanc, ce qui lui vaudra de gagner deux fois l'Oscar de la meilleure photographie (il aura six autres nominations), dans cette catégorie — voir la rubrique "Récompenses" ci-dessous —.

Au cours de sa longue carrière, il côtoie de nombreux réalisateurs, tels Fritz Lang (Les bourreaux meurent aussi en 1943, avec Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan), Sydney Pollack (Propriété interdite en 1966, avec Natalie Wood, Robert Redford), Martin Ritt (ex. : Hombre en 1967, avec Paul Newman, Fredric March), Josef von Sternberg (Shanghaï Express en 1932, avec Marlene Dietrich), ou encore Raoul Walsh (ex. : La Vallée de la peur en 1947, avec Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum), entre autres.

James Wong Howe est aussi réalisateur de trois films dans les années 1950 et, pour la télévision, d'épisodes de deux séries en 1961 et d'un téléfilm en 1963.

Il est un cousin de l'actrice Anna May Wong, qu'il retrouve sur Peter Pan (1924), puis Shanghaï Express (1932), déjà cité.

Best films

Fantasia (1940)
(Director of Photography)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
(Director of Photography)
Hud (1963)
(Director of Photography)
Picnic (1955)
(Director of Photography)
The Rose Tattoo (1955)
(Director of Photography)
Shanghai Express (1932)
(Additional Photography)

Usually with

Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
(17 films)
Perc Westmore
Perc Westmore
(16 films)
Jack Warner
Jack Warner
(14 films)
Max Steiner
Max Steiner
(12 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of James Wong Howe (116 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Visions of Light, 1h32
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Historical
Themes Films about films, Documentary films about business, Documentary films about the visual arts, Documentary films about the film industry, Documentaire sur une personnalité
Actors Ernest R. Dickerson, Michael Chapman, Vittorio Storaro, Sven Nykvist, Caleb Deschanel, Néstor Almendros
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating76% 3.8417453.8417453.8417453.8417453.841745
The film is the equivalent of a walk through a cinema museum. The doc interviews many modern-day directors of photography and they illustrate via examples their best work and the scenes from films that influenced them to pursue their art.

Director

The Invisible Avenger, 1h10
Directed by James Wong Howe
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action
Themes Superhero films
Actors Richard Derr, Helen Westcott, Jack Donner
Rating53% 2.670312.670312.670312.670312.67031
Pablo Ramirez is an expatriate from the Caribbean nation of Santa Cruz that is under control of a military dictator called the Generalissimo. From New Orleans, Ramirez plots a revolution and his return to Santa Cruz. To assist in this and to protect him from the Santa Cruz secret police who are in New Orleans he seeks the help of Lamont Cranston through a mutual friend, jazz trumpeter Tony Alcade. In the midst of a telephone call to Cranston Tony is murdered by the secret police.

Cameraman

Funny Lady
Funny Lady (1975)
, 2h16
Directed by Herbert Ross
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, Ben Vereen, Colleen Camp
Roles Director of Photography
Rating61% 3.095413.095413.095413.095413.09541
Biographie romancée de la comédienne américaine Fanny Brice et de son mariage avec l'imprésario et homme de spectacle Billy Rose.
The Horsemen, 1h49
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure
Themes Films about animals, Sports films, Films about horses, Mise en scène d'un mammifère, Horse sports in film
Actors Omar Sharif, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jack Palance, Saeed Jaffrey, Peter Jeffrey, Vernon Dobtcheff
Roles Director of Photography
Rating62% 3.101093.101093.101093.101093.10109
Uraz (Omar Sharif), the son of Tursen (Jack Palance), the stable master and retired buzkashi player for a feudal lord, is a master horseman who lives by a primitive code of honor. Uruz's family honor is damaged when he breaks his leg playing the game which is the Afghani equivalent of polo. His father, who lost a lot of money betting on his son, will barely speak to him. To regain the family honor (and wealth) he must somehow re-learn how to ride -- after his injuries cost him his leg below the knee. In the face of great obstacles, and despite the derision and treachery of others, he gains the chance to play in the games given by the king of Afghanistan.
Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, 1h40
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors James Coburn, Lynn Redgrave, Robert Hooks
Roles Director of Photography
Rating52% 2.613012.613012.613012.613012.61301
In Tennessee, Myrtle Kane (Lynn Redgrave) and Jeb Thorington (James Coburn) arrive on The Rube Benedict Show where the eponymous host (Reggie King) selects them and another couple as contestants. Despite not knowing each other, the couple wins the competition, and decides to earn $3,500 on one condition to have their marriage ordained by a minister on set. Using the check to restore Waverley Plantation, the couple arrives to New Orleans where Jeb introduces her wife to the decaying plantation mansion his family has owned since 1840. Sometime later, Jeb introduces Myrtle to his multiracial half-brother Chicken – on his father's side – who earned his name for hoarding chickens to the rooftop during their childhood. Myrtle eventually shares her background in show business as the last surviving member of an Alabama female quintet named the Mobile Hot-Shots.
The Molly Maguires, 2h4
Directed by Martin Ritt, Oscar Rudolph
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Historical
Themes Films about the labor movement, Political films
Actors Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Frank Finlay, Bethel Leslie, Anthony Zerbe
Roles Director of Photography
Rating67% 3.3948753.3948753.3948753.3948753.394875
The Molly Maguires were a secret organization of Irish coal miners established in nineteenth century Pennsylvania to fight oppressive mineowners. Led by Jack Kehoe (Sean Connery), they plant dynamite to destroy plant shafts and equipment. As character James McParlan, Richard Harris portrays real life Pinkerton Detective James McParland who was employed to infiltrate the Mollies.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, 2h3
Directed by Robert Ellis Miller
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about disabilities, Sign-language films, American Sign Language films, Films about language and translation
Actors Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, Stacy Keach, Cicely Tyson, Chuck McCann, Biff McGuire
Roles Director of Photography
Rating75% 3.7970953.7970953.7970953.7970953.797095
John Singer (Alan Arkin) is a deaf-mute who works as a silver engraver in a small southern town. His only friend is a mentally disabled mute, Antonapoulos (Chuck McCann), who continually gets into trouble with the law since he doesn't know any better. When Antonapoulos is committed to a mental institution by his family, Singer decides to move to a town near the institution in order to be near his friend. Singer finds work there and rents a room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly (Biff McGuire and Laurinda Barrett), who are having financial difficulties as a result of Mr. Kelly's recent hip injury. Because the Kellys' teenage daughter, Mick (Sondra Locke), resents having to give up her room to him, Singer makes a few tentative efforts to win her friendship. Singer also tries to become friends with Blount (Stacy Keach), a semi-alcoholic drifter, and Dr. Copeland (Percy Rodriguez), an embittered segregationist African American who is secretly dying of lung cancer. Copeland's deepest disappointment is that his educated daughter, Portia (Cicely Tyson), works as a domestic and is married to a field hand.
Hombre
Hombre (1967)
, 1h51
Directed by Martin Ritt
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Western
Actors Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Rush
Roles Director of Photography
Rating73% 3.696553.696553.696553.696553.69655
In late 19th-century Arizona, an Apache-raised white man, John Russell, faces prejudice in the white world after he returns for his inheritance (a gold watch and a boarding house) upon his father's death. Deciding to sell the house in order to buy a herd of horses—which does not endear him to the boarders who live there or to the caretaker, Jessie—Russell ends up riding a stagecoach with Jessie and unhappily married boarders Doris and Billy Lee Blake leaving town.
This Property Is Condemned, 1h50
Directed by Sydney Pollack
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Théâtre, Films about the labor movement, Films based on plays, Adaptation d'une pièce de théâtre de Tennessee Williams
Actors Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Charles Bronson, Kate Reid, Mary Badham, Alan Baxter
Roles Director of Photography
Rating69% 3.4943453.4943453.4943453.4943453.494345
The film is a frame story in which an unkempt girl, Willie Starr (Mary Badham), tells the story of her dead sister Alva (Natalie Wood) to Tom, a boy who she meets on the abandoned railroad tracks of Dodson, Mississippi in the 1930s. The viewer sees this story in flashback.
Seconds
Seconds (1966)
, 1h40
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Horror
Actors Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Richard Anderson, Jeff Corey
Roles Director of Photography
Rating75% 3.7970053.7970053.7970053.7970053.797005
The film is an expressionistic, part-horror, part-thriller, part-science fiction film about the obsession with eternal youth and misplaced faith in the ability of medical science to achieve it.
The Glory Guys, 1h52
Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Arnold Laven
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Romance, Western
Actors Tom Tryon, Harve Presnell, Senta Berger, James Caan, Michael Anderson Jr., Andrew Duggan
Roles Director of Photography
Rating61% 3.0540353.0540353.0540353.0540353.054035
Les compagnons de la gloire est un film d'United Artists, de 1965, d'après un roman de Hoffman Birney : The Dice of God. Le scénario a été écrit bien avant le tournage par Sam Peckinpah, mais le film a été réalisé par Arnold Laven.
The Outrage, 1h37
Directed by Martin Ritt
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Crime, Western
Themes Films about sexuality, Rape in fiction
Actors Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson, William Shatner, Howard Da Silva
Roles Director of Photography
Rating61% 3.099063.099063.099063.099063.09906
Three disparate travelers, a disillusioned preacher (William Shatner), an unsuccessful prospector (Howard Da Silva), and a larcenous, cynical con man (Edward G. Robinson), meet at a decrepit railroad station in the 1870s Southwest. The prospector and the preacher were witnesses at the memorable rape and murder trial of the notorious bandit Juan Carrasco (Paul Newman). The bandit duped an aristocratic Southerner, Colonel Wakefield (Lawrence Harvey), into believing he knew the location of a lost Aztec treasure. The greedy "gentleman" allowed himself to be tied up while Carasco assaulted his wife Nina (Claire Bloom). These events lead to the stabbing of the husband and Carrasco was tried, convicted, and condemned for the crimes.
Hud
Hud (1963)
, 1h52
Directed by Martin Ritt
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Western
Actors Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Brandon deWilde, Whit Bissell, John Ashley
Roles Director of Photography
Rating77% 3.8961553.8961553.8961553.8961553.896155
Hud Bannon (Paul Newman) is ambitious and self-centered, the opposite of his deeply principled rancher father Homer (Melvyn Douglas). Also living on the Bannon ranch is Hud's teenage nephew, Lonnie (Brandon deWilde), who looks up to both men but is most impressed by Hud. Lonnie and Hud are attracted to the Bannons' middle-aged housekeeper, Alma (Patricia Neal). Although she is attracted to Hud, Alma keeps her distance because she has been mistreated in the past by men like him.
Song Without End, 2h21
Directed by George Cukor, Charles Vidor
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about classical music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Dirk Bogarde, Capucine, Geneviève Page, Patricia Morison, Ivan Desny, Martita Hunt
Roles Director of Photography
Rating59% 2.994242.994242.994242.994242.99424
Jeune pianiste de talent et salué par la critique, Franz Lizst n'en reste pas moins un personnage torturé par la solitude. À l'occasion d'une tournée européenne, le jeune artiste fait la rencontre de la princesse Caroline Sayn-Wittengenstei. Tous deux entament une idylle à double tranchant puisque cette nouvelle relation a une conséquence négative sur les performances de Franz.