Edward Cronjager

Edward Cronjager
Cronjager on the set of the 1928 film Moran of the Marines
Born	(1904-03-21)March 21, 1904 New York City, New York, United States
Died	June 15, 1960(1960-06-15) (aged 56) Hollywood, California, United States
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1925–60

Edward Cronjager (March 21, 1904 – June 15, 1960) was an American cinematographer, whose career spanned from the silent era through the 1950s. He came from a family of cinematographers, with his father, uncle, and brother all working in the film industry behind the camera. His work covered over 100 films, and included projects on the small screen towards the end of his career. He filmed in both black and white and color mediums, and his work received nominations for seven Academy Awards over the span of three decades, although he never won the statue.

He was the preferred director of photography of early film star Richard Dix, and served on several Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) committees, as well as being selected by the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) to test new types of film stock. Cronjager pioneered several new techniques and types of cinematography, developing new camera angles in the 1920s, working on one of the earliest film noirs in the 1940s, and using Cinemascope in underwater photography in the 1950s.

Cronjager was born into a film family in New York City in 1904. His father and uncle, Henry and Jules (respectively), were famous cinematographers during the first two decades of the twentieth century. They worked with companies such as Edison, Biograph and Fox Film Corporation. Edward's brother, Henry Jr., was also a famous cinematographer, although his filmography is sometimes confused with that of his father, due to the similarity of names and the fact that the active years of their careers overlapped. Before following in his father's footsteps, Cronjager would work as an assistant machinist.

One of Cronjager's first efforts behind the lens was at the age of 19, filming the heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey and Luis Ángel Firpo in 1923. He began his career in the film industry in 1925 with the Famous Players-Lasky film corporation (later Paramount Pictures), where he remained until 1930. His first project was the silent film, Womanhandled, starring Richard Dix, which would be shot at Lasky's Long Island, New York studio, where Cronjager worked until being transferred to Lasky's west coast operation in 1927.The Film Daily called his work on the picture "very good". During the next four years he photographed fifteen silent films, of which twelve starred Dix, and he shot almost every one of the twenty-nine pictures Dix made between 1927 and 1933. In addition, in 1927 Cronjager joined the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).