Hal Mohr

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Hal Mohr (August 2, 1894, San Francisco – May 10, 1974 in Santa Monica, California) was a famed movie cinematographer. He is one of only six cinematographers to have a "Star" on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, the others being J. Peverell Marley, Ray Rennahan, Leon Shamroy, Haskell Wexler, and Conrad L. Hall. His wife Evelyn Venable also has a "Star".

[edit] Career

In 1915, in an early example of an exploitation film peddled directly to theater owners, Mohr and Sol Lesser produced and directed a film The Last Night of the Barbary Coast. This film purported to show the last night of the depraved Barbary Coast section of San Francisco before it was shut down by the police. (The area wasn't actually closed down until 1917.) This is now considered a lost film.

Notably, he is the only person to have won a competitive Academy Award without being nominated for it. In 1936, a write-in campaign won him the Best Cinematography Oscar for his work on A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). The Academy later changed the Oscar rules, making write-in voting impossible.

He won another Academy Award for his work on The Phantom of the Opera (1943). Other film cinematographer credits include Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) and Another Part of the Forest (1948).

[edit] Personal life

Mohr married actress Evelyn Venable on December 7, 1934, whom she met on the set of the Will Rogers film David Harum. Strict vegetarians, they had two daughters, Dolores and Rosalia, and remained married until his death in 1974.