Born July 16, 1901 in New York, N.Y., Leon Tolstoy Shamroy was the son of a Russian immigrant father and an American mother. Educated at Columbia University, Shamroy worked as a draftsman and engineer. Dissatisfied with the lack of money in his chosen field, he migrated to California and went to work at Fox labs. He became a cameraman in the mid-1920s The experimental 1928 film, The Last Moment earned him a reputation as one of the most inventive cinematographers in Hollywood.

Working first for Paramount, then Selznick at RKO, Shamroy’s reputation grew with such films as 1933’s Three Cornered Moon; 1935’s Private Worlds; 1937’s You Only Live Once and 1938’s The Young in Heart for which he earned the first of his record 18 Oscar nominations, since tied by Charles Lang.

Moving to Fox, Shamroy became one of that studio’s premier cinematographers, becoming the director of photography on most of their prestige films from 1944 on. Most notable among his early Fox films were 1939’s The Story of Alexander Graham Bell; 1940’s Down Argentine Way; 1942’s The Black Swan for which he won his first Oscar; 1943’s Claudia and Stormy Weather and 1944’s Wilson for which he won his second Oscar.

In 1945 alone he was director of photography on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; State Fair and Leave Her to Heaven winning his third Oscar for the latter.

At home in all genres, Shamroy’s subsequent films of note included 1949’s Twelve O’Clock High; 1952’s With a Song in My Heart and The Snows of Kilimanjaro and 1953’s Call Me Madam.

In 1953 he directed The Robe, the first film released in Cinemascope and subsequently trained all of Fox’s cinematographers on the manner in which to film in the larger format which he personally hated. He felt learning how to properly shoot in widescreen was tantamount to learning how to shoot talkies a quarter of a century earlier.

Shamroy’s classical hand was evident in such widescreen hits of the 1950s as 1954’s The Egysptian and There’s No Business Like Show Business; 1955’s Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing; 1956’s The King and I; 1957’s Desk Set; 1958’s South Pacific and 1959’s Porgy and Bess.

In 1963 he was nominated for Oscars for both Cleopatra and The Cardinal, winning for the former. His fourth Oscar tied him with Joseph Ruttenberg, making them the only four-time winners in their category to date.

Shamroy’s last film of note was 1968’s Planet of the Apes. He died in 1974, a few days before what would have been his 73rd birthday.

Shamroy married three times, his first two marriages ending in divorce. He had one child with his first wife; two with his second and one with third wife, actress Mary Anderson (Lifeboat), a boy who lived for two months. He was survived by Anderson and his other three children. Mary Anderson died earlier this year at 96.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945), directed by John M. Stahl

Shamroy’s luscious Technicolor saturated camerawork stands this revered film noir on its ear. Films noir by dint of definition should take place in dark shadows if not the dead of night. Here gorgeous sunlight, and lots of it, throws a monkey wrench in all of that, as does Gene Tierney’s intoxicating portrayal of a maleficent, evil woman.

Shamroy richly deserved his third Oscar for color cinematography within a four year period that began with 1942’s The Black Swan and continued with 1944’s Wilson on top of which was also the director of photography on two of the year’s other best photographed films, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and State Fair.

THE ROBE (1953), directed by Henry Koster

The first film released in Cinemascope was not the first made in the process. That was How to Marry a Millionaire which was released two months later.

The Robe actually began filming in the Academy standard of 1.33 to 1 but production was halted and it was filmed in both processes, one for theaters equipped with Cinemascope screens and one for theatres that hadn’t yet upgraded.

Shamroy initially hated the new process, feeling it set moviemaking back ten years as directors, cinematographers and crews had to get used to a new process he likened to the coming of sound in the late 1920s. Nevertheless he became such an expert at it that Fox had him train their other cinematographers on the proper way of filming in widescreen.

THE KING AND I (1956), directed by Walter Lang

By now an acknowledged master in the use of widescreen processes, Shamroy filmed The King and I in Cinemascope 55 in which a 55mm strip provides increased clarity in both color and definition. Although shot in this process, the film was only released in a 35mm reduction prints.

Two years after The King and I, Shamroy continued to advance his widescreen finesse, photographing South Pacific in 65mm Todd-AO. He again used Todd-AO to shoot 1959’s Porgy and Bess; 1963’s Cleopatra and 1965’s The Agony and the Ecstasy.

THE CARDINAL (1957), directed by Otto Preminger

Shamroy was Oscar nominated for his stunning camerawork on Preminger’s film which he completed in 53 days as well as the same year’s Cleopatra on which he labored for over a year. He won his fourth career Oscar for the latter. It was a prime example of the Academy giving an award to the right person for the wrong film.

Cleopatra is an inflated bore. The Cardinal, based on Henry Morton Robinson’s best-seller, is an absorbing account of the life of a Boston priest who rises to the office of Cardinal after an event-filled life that tackles such issues as bigotry; poverty; celibacy; abortion and Nazism. Filming locations included Boston and other Massachusetts locales; Connecticut; Mississippi; Vienna and Rome. The Cardinal was the first film to be lensed in anamorphic 35mm and then blown up to 70mm for release.

PLANET OF THE APES (1957), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Shamroy’s Panavision cameras help convey a sense of other-worldliness in Schaffner’s science fiction masterpiece based on a novel by Pierre Boule, the author of The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Filmed in California; Utah and Arizona as well as on 20th Century-Fox’s back lot, Shamroy’s visuals are a big part of what made this an instant classic, along with the performances of Charlton Heston as the captured pilot and Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans in extremely realistic costumes as apes.

LEON SHAMROY AND OSCAR

• The Young in Heart (1938) – nominated – Best Cinematography
• Down Argentine Way (1940) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) – nominated – Best Black-and-White Cinematography
• The Black Swan (1942) – Oscar – Best Color Cinematography
• Wilson (1944) – Oscar – Best Color Cinematography
• Leave Her to Heaven (1945) – Oscar – Best Color Cinematography
• Prince of Foxes (1949) – nominated – Best Black-and-White Cinematography
• David and Bathsheba (1951) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• The Robe (1953) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• The Egyptian (1954) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• The King and I (1956) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• South Pacific (1958) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• Porgy and Bess (1959) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• The Cardinal (1963) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography
• Cleopatra (1963) – Oscar – Best Color Cinematography
• The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) – nominated – Best Color Cinematography