Robert Krasker

Robert Krasker, B.S.C., A.S.C. (21 August 1913 - 16 August 1981) was a cinematographer, who worked on more than fifty films in his career.

He was born in Perth, Australia and travelled to England in 1932 via photographic studios in Paris and Dresden. He moved to England just before the outbreak of WWII ^[1] and found work at Korda's London Films, where he became a senior camera operator, perhaps most notably on Things To Come (1936).

Krasker's work was strongly influenced by film noir and German Expressionism. His most notable films included Uncle Silas (1947), directed by Charles Frank and The Third Man (1949), for which he won an Oscar, and Odd Man Out (1947), both for director Carol Reed, as well as Brief Encounter for David Lean and Another Man's Poison for Irving Rapper. Despite Krasker's brilliant and atmospheric work on Brief Encounter, Lean sacked him from his next film, Great Expectations, because he and Ronald Neame were unhappy with his handling of the marsh scenes. His later films included the epics Alexander the Great, El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire.

Krasker was the first Australian-born cinematographer to win an Oscar; the second would not win until 1990.

Notes

External links

• Robert Krasker biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline