Charles Rosher

Charles G. Rosher, A.S.C. (17 November 1885 – 15 January 1974) was an English-born cinematographer who worked from the early days of silent films through the 1950s.

He was Mary Pickford's favourite cinematographer and a personal friend, shooting all of the films in which she starred from 1918 to 1927, before they had a falling out during production of Coquette (1929).^[1][2] He was the first cinematographer to receive an Academy Award, along with Karl Struss, for Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), and won again for The Yearling (1946), with Leonard Smith and Arthur Arling. He was also nominated four times.

Biography

Charles Rosher was born in London in 1885. According to an interview of him in the documentary The Image Makers: The Adventures of America's Pioneer Cinematographers, he was originally unhappily studying naval architecture, but enrolled in

In 1913, Rosher went to Mexico to shoot newsreel footage of Pancho Villa's rebellion.^{[citation needed]} In January 1919, he was one of the 15 founders of the American Society of Cinematographers and served as the group's first vice-president. In the 1920s, he was one of the more sought-after cinematographers in Hollywood, and was a personal favourite of stars such as Mary Pickford, working with her, first on A Little Princess (1917), then on all the films she acted in from How Could You, Jean? (1918) to My Best Girl (1927).^[1]

However, they had a falling out over the restrictions the sound department wanted to impose in shooting Coquette (1929), Pickford's first talking picture, and Karl Struss took over the cinematography.^[3] His work with Struss on F. W. Murnau's 1927 film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is viewed as a milestone in cinematography^{[citation needed]} and won the pair the first Academy Award for cinematography in 1929. He shot five films for producer David O. Selznick, including Rockabye (1932), Our Betters (1933) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).

Rosher worked at several studios, but spent the last 12 years of his career exclusively at

He was rumoured to have been Anna May Wong's lover when she was 20.^[4][5]

Rosher is the father of actress Joan Marsh and cinematographer Charles Rosher Jr. (1935–2015), who filmed 3 Women (1977) and A Wedding (1978) for Robert Altman, as well as Semi-Tough (1977), The Onion Field (1979) and Independence Day (1983).^[6]

Death

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Rosher died of an accidental fall in Lisbon, Portugal, on 15 January 1974. He was 88 years old.

Awards

• 1929 – Oscar for Best Cinematography, with Karl Struss, for Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
• 1935 – Best Cinematography Oscar nomination for The Affairs of Cellini
• 1945 – Oscar nomination for Kismet
• 1947 – Best Cinematography Oscar, with
  Arthur E. Arling
  , for The Yearling
• 1951 – Oscar nomination for Annie Get Your Gun
• 1952 – Oscar nomination for Show Boat
• 1955 and 1957 – George Eastman Award, given by
  George Eastman House
  for distinguished contribution to the art of film

In addition, Rosher received Photoplay magazine's Gold Medal, and the only fellowship awarded by the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.

Filmography

* indicates a Pickford film.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Rosher.

• Charles Rosher at
  IMDb
• Biography in the New York Times