Burnett Guffey, A.S.C.

American Society of Cinematographers

The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...

 (May 26, 1905 - May 30, 1983) was an American cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

.

He won two Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

: From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...

(1953) and Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde (film)

The film was originally offered to François Truffaut, the best-known director of the New Wave movement, who made contributions to the script. He passed on the project to make Fahrenheit 451. The producers approached Jean-Luc Godard next...

(1967).

Career

While still a teenager, the future Academy Award-winning cinematographer began as a camera assistant in 1923 on John Ford

John Ford

John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

's 1924 western saga The Iron Horse

The Iron Horse (film)

The Iron Horse is a silent film directed by John Ford in 1924. It was produced by Fox Film. -Synopsis:The film presents an idealized image of the construction of the American first transcontinental railroad. It culminates with the scene of driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit on May...

. He was then hired by the Famous Players-Lasky Studios in 1927, became a camera operator in 1928 and worked there until 1943. Guffey was hired as a Director of Photography by Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 in 1944.

In 1957-58 he served as president of the American Society of Cinematographers

American Society of Cinematographers

The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...

 (A.S.C.) for a year, and had been a long standing member.

According to film critic Spencer Selby, Guffey was a prolific film noir cinematographer, shooting 20 of them, including In a Lonely Place

In a Lonely Place

In a Lonely Place is a film noir directed by Nicholas Ray, and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was adapted by Edmund North from the 1947 novel In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes.Bogart stars in the film as Dixon Steele, a...

(1950).

Filmography

• Fairways and Foul (1929)
• Tahiti Nights (1944)
• The Unwritten Code (1944)
• Kansas City Kitty (1944)
• The Soul of a Monster (1944)
• U-Boat Prisoner (1944)
• Sailor's Holiday (1944)
• My Name Is Julia Ross
  My Name is Julia Ross
  My Name is Julia Ross is a film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, based on the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert. This drama is the first in a series of film noirs directed by Lewis and features Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready.-Plot:In London, Julia Ross goes to a new...
  
  (1945)
• The Girl of the Limberlost (1945)
• The Gay Senorita (1945)
• The Blonde from Brooklyn (1945)
• Eve Knew Her Apples (1945)
• I Love a Mystery (1945)
• Eadie Was a Lady (1945)
• Gallant Journey
  Gallant Journey
  Gallant Journey is a historical film about early U.S. aeronautical experimenter John Joseph Montgomery. It depicts his efforts to build and fly gliders, from his childhood through to his death in 1911.The chief pilot for the film was Paul Mantz....
  
  (1946)
• So Dark the Night
  So Dark the Night
  So Dark the Night is an American crime film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis and written by Dwight V. Babcock, Martin Berkeley, based on a story written by Aubrey Wisberg...
  
  (1946)
• Night Editor
  Night Editor
  Night Editor is a B-movie film noir directed by Henry Levin and based on a popular radio program of the same name. The script for the film was based on a previous radio program episode "Inside Story."...
  
  (1946)
• A Bird in the Head
  A Bird in the Head
  A Bird in the Head is the 89th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
  
  (1946)
• The Notorious Lone Wolf (1946)
• Meet Me on Broadway (1946)
• A Close Call for Boston Blackie (1946)
• The Fighting Guardsman (1946)
• Framed (1947)
• Johnny O'Clock
  Johnny O'Clock
  Johnny O'Clock is an American crime film noir written and directed by Robert Rossen, based on a story by Milton Holmes. The drama features Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, and Lee J. Cobb.-Plot:...
  
  (1947)
• The Gallant Blade (1948)
• Screen Snapshots: Smiles and Styles (1948)
• Screen Snapshots: Photoplay Gold Medal Awards (1948)
• The Sign of the Ram
  The Sign of the Ram
  The Sign of the Ram is an American film noir directed by John Sturges and written by Charles Bennett, based on a novel written by Margaret Ferguson. The drama features Susan Peters, Alexander Knox, among others.-Plot:The story tells of Leah St...
  
  (1948)
• To the Ends of the Earth
  To the Ends of the Earth (film)
  To the Ends of the Earth is an American crime film noir directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Sidney Buchman and Jay Richard Kennedy. The drama features Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, and others.-Plot:...
  
  (1948)
• And Baby Makes Three (1949)
• All the King's Men
  All the King's Men (1949 film)
  All the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.-Plot:...
  
  (1949)
• The Reckless Moment
  The Reckless Moment
  The Reckless Moment is a film noir melodrama directed by Max Ophüls, produced by Walter Wanger, and released by Columbia Pictures with Burnett Guffey as cinematographer. Starring Joan Bennett and James Mason, the film is based on The Blank Wall , a novel written by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding...
  
  (1949)
• The Undercover Man
  The Undercover Man
  The Undercover Man is a crime drama film noir starring Glenn Ford. This one of a number of noirs directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who went on to helm Gun Crazy and The Big Combo. The drama features Glenn Ford, Nina Foch, James Whitmore, among others.-Plot:Frank Warren is a treasury agent assigned to...
  
  (1949)
• Knock on Any Door
  Knock on Any Door
  Knock on Any Door is an American court-room trial film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart. The picture introduced John Derek to film and was based on the novel of the same name by Willard Motley.-Plot:...
  
  (1949)
• Emergency Wedding (1950)
• Convicted (1950)
• In a Lonely Place
  In a Lonely Place
  In a Lonely Place is a film noir directed by Nicholas Ray, and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was adapted by Edmund North from the 1947 novel In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes.Bogart stars in the film as Dixon Steele, a...
  
  (1950)
• Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
• The Family Secret (1951)
• Two of a Kind
  Two of a Kind (1951 film)
  Two of a Kind is a film noir directed by Henry Levin, and written by James Edward Grant, James Gunn, and Lawrence Kimble. The film features Edmond O'Brien, Lizabeth Scott, Alexander Knox, among others.-Plot:...
  
  (1951)
• Sirocco
  Sirocco (film)
  Sirocco is an American film noir directed by Curtis Bernhardt and written by A.I. Bezzerides and Hans Jacoby. It is based on the novel Coup de Grace written by Joseph Kessel. The drama features Humphrey Bogart, Märta Torén, Lee J. Cobb, among others.-Plot:In 1925 Damascus, the natives are engaged...
  
  (1951)
• Assignment: Paris (1952)
• The Sniper
  The Sniper (1952 film)
  The Sniper is a black-and-white film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk, written by Harry Brown, and based on a story by Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt. The film features Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Gerald Mohr, Marie Windsor, among others....
  
  (1952)
• Scandal Sheet (1952)
• From Here to Eternity
  From Here to Eternity
  From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...
  
  (1953)
• The Last Posse (1953)

• The Bamboo Prison (1954)
• Private Hell 36
  Private Hell 36
  Private Hell 36 is a black-and-white film noir, directed by Don Siegel. It features Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, among others....
  
  (1954)
• Human Desire
  Human Desire
  Human Desire is a black-and-white film noir directed by Fritz Lang, and based on the novel La Bête humaine by Émile Zola. The story was filmed twice before: La Bête humaine directed by Jean Renoir and Die Bestie im Menschen .-Plot:Railroad supervisor Carl Buckley gets fired from his job...
  
  (1954)
• Three Stripes in the Sun (1955)
• Count Three and Pray
  Count Three and Pray (film)
  Count Three and Pray is a 1955 CinemaScope western film starring Van Heflin, Joanne Woodward and Raymond Burr. It was based on the story Calico Pony Count Three and Pray is a 1955 CinemaScope western film starring Van Heflin, Joanne Woodward (in her film debut) and Raymond Burr. It was based on...
  
  (1955)
• Tight Spot
  Tight Spot
  Tight Spot is an American film noir directed by Phil Karlson and written by William Bowers, based on the play Dead Pigeon, by Leonard Kantor. It stars Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, Lorne Greene, and Eve McVeagh...
  
  (1955)
• The Violent Men
  The Violent Men
  The Violent Men is a CinemaScope Western film drama from 1955. It was directed by Rudolph Maté, and starred Glenn Ford along with Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson as a bickering married couple at odds with cattlemen in their small town. Brian Keith and Diane Foster co-starred...
  
  (1955)
• Storm Center
  Storm Center
  Storm Center is an American drama film directed by Daniel Taradash. The screenplay by Taradash and Elick Moll focuses on what were at the time two very controversial subjects, Communism and book banning, and took a strong stance against censorship....
  
  (1956)
• The Harder They Fall
  The Harder They Fall
  The Harder They Fall is a film noir directed by Mark Robson, featuring Humphrey Bogart in his last film before his death in 1957. The film was written by Philip Yordan and based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg....
  
  (1956)
• Battle Stations (1956)
• Decision at Sundown
  Decision at Sundown
  Decision at Sundown is a 1957 western directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott.One of seven Boetticher/Scott western collaborations that also includes Seven Men from Now, The Tall T, Buchanan Rides Alone, Westbound, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.-Plot synopsis:Bart Allison ...
  
  (1957)
• The Brothers Rico
  The Brothers Rico
  The Brothers Rico is an American crime film noir directed by Phil Karlson and written by Lewis Meltzer, Ben Perry, and Dalton Trumbo. The film is based on a story written by Georges Simenon, a French detective-story specialist...
  
  (1957)
• The Strange One
  The Strange One
  The Strange One is a 1957 black-and-white film about students faced with an ethical dilemma in a military college in the Southern United States...
  
  (1957)
• Nightfall
  Nightfall (1957 film)
  Nightfall is a film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur. It features Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, and Anne Bancroft. The low-budget film is remembered today for camera work by cinematographer Burnett Guffey...
  
  (1957)
• Me and the Colonel
  Me and the Colonel
  Me and the Colonel is a 1958 film based on the play "Jacobowsky und der Oberst" by Franz Werfel. It was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens and Akim Tamiroff....
  
  (1958)
• Screaming Mimi (1958)
• The True Story of Lynn Stuart
  The True Story of Lynn Stuart
  The True Story of Lynn Stuart is a 1958 Columbia Pictures feature film starring Betsy Palmer and Jack Lord. Marking the final directorial effort of Lewis Seiler, it dramatizes the true story of a young Santa Ana, California, housewife who became a volunteer undercover narcotics agent in the 1950's...
  
  (1958)
• Edge of Eternity
  Edge of Eternity
  Edge of Eternity is a 1959 CinemaScope film directed by Don Siegel shot on location in the Grand Canyon.-Plot:The film begins with an attempted assassination of a man looking into the Grand Canyon with his binoculars. The assassin disables the emergency brake from the man's car and attempts to run...
  
  (1959)
• They Came to Cordura
  They Came To Cordura
  They Came To Cordura is a 1959 Western film co-written and directed by Robert Rossen, starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth, and featuring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Richard Conte, Michael Callan, and Dick York. It was based on a 1958 novel by Glendon Swarthout.-Plot:Tom Thorn is a U.S...
  
  (1959)
• Gidget
  Gidget (film)
  Gidget is a 1959 Columbia Pictures CinemaScope feature film. It stars Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren in a story about a teenager's initiation into the California surf culture and her affiliated romance with a young surfer. The screenplay was written by Gabrielle Upton, a nom de plume...
  
  (1959)
• Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960)
• Hell to Eternity
  Hell to Eternity
  Hell to Eternity is a 1960 World War II film starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Vic Damone and directed by Phil Karlson. This film biopic is about the true experiences of Marine hero Pfc...
  
  (1960)
• The Mountain Road
  The Mountain Road
  The Mountain Road is a 1960 war film starring James Stewart and directed by Daniel Mann. Based on a book by Theodore White, the film follows the attempts of a U.S. Army major to destroy bridges and roads potentially useful to the Japanese during World War II.Starting on Sunday, June 28, 1959,...
  
  (1960)
• Mr. Sardonicus
  Mr. Sardonicus
  Mr. Sardonicus is a 1961 horror film produced and directed by William Castle. It tells the story of Sardonicus, a man whose face becomes frozen in a horrifying grin while robbing his father's grave to obtain a winning lottery ticket. He tries to force a doctor to cure him, but eventually dies when...
  
  (1961)
• Homicidal
  Homicidal
  Homicidal is a 1961 thriller film produced and directed by the self-proclaimed "King of Showmanship", William Castle. Written by Robb White, the film stars Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust, and Joan Marshall...
  
  (1961)
• Cry for Happy
  Cry for Happy
  Cry for Happy is a 1961 colour movie directed by George Marshall.-Plot:A Navy photographer and his three-man team occupy a Tokyo geisha house during the Korean War. Though off-limits,...
  
  (1961)
• Kid Galahad
  Kid Galahad
  Kid Galahad is a 1962 musical film starring Elvis Presley as a boxer. The film was released by United Artists. The film opened at #9 at the box office when released in the United States in August 1962...
  
  (1962)
• Birdman of Alcatraz
  Birdman of Alcatraz (film)
  Birdman of Alcatraz is a 1962 film starring Burt Lancaster and directed by John Frankenheimer. It is a fictionalized version of the life of Robert Stroud, a federal prison inmate known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz" because of his life with birds. In spite of the title, much of the action is set at...
  
  (1962)
• Good Neighbor Sam
  Good Neighbor Sam
  Good Neighbor Sam is a 1964 American comedy movie co-written and directed by David Swift and starring Jack Lemmon and Romy Schneider.It was based on the novel by Jack Finney. The screenplay was the motion picture debut of James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, who had written many American...
  
  (1964)
• Flight from Ashiya
  Flight from Ashiya
  Flight from Ashiya is a 1964 film about the U.S. Air Force's Air Rescue Service, flying out of Ashiya Air Base, Japan. In this fictionalized film set in the early 1960s, a flight crew's mission is to rescue a liferaft of Japanese civilians stranded in rough seas.- Plot :The movie centers on three...
  
  (1964)
• King Rat
  King Rat (1965 film)
  King Rat is a 1965 World War II film adapted from the James Clavell novel King Rat. The film was directed by Bryan Forbes and starred George Segal as Corporal King and James Fox as Marlow, two World War II prisoners of war in a squalid camp near Singapore...
  
  (1965)
• The Silencers
  The Silencers (film)
  The Silencers is the title of an American spy film spoof motion picture produced in 1966 and starring Dean Martin as agent Matt Helm. It is only loosely based upon the novel The Silencers by Donald Hamilton, as well as another of Hamilton's Helm novels, Death of a Citizen.The film was the first of...
  
  (1966)
• The Ambushers
  The Ambushers (film)
  The Ambushers is a 1967 spy comedy film filmed in Acapulco starring Dean Martin, Senta Berger and Janice Rule. It is loosely based upon the novel of the same title by Donald Hamilton....
  
  (1967)
• Bonnie and Clyde
  Bonnie and Clyde (film)
  The film was originally offered to François Truffaut, the best-known director of the New Wave movement, who made contributions to the script. He passed on the project to make Fahrenheit 451. The producers approached Jean-Luc Godard next...
  
  (1967)
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
  How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (film)
  How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a 1967 American musical comedy film based on the 1961 stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the book written by Shepherd Mead...
  
  (1967)
• The Split
  The Split
  The Split is a 1968 film directed by Gordon Flemyng and written by Robert Sabaroff based upon the novel by Donald E. Westlake.-Plot synopsis:...
  
  (1968)
• The Madwoman of Chaillot
  The Madwoman of Chaillot (film)
  The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical comedy-drama film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer...
  
  (1969)
• Some Kind of a Nut
  Some Kind of a Nut
  Some Kind of a Nut is a 1969 comedy film starring Dick Van Dyke, Angie Dickinson and Zohra Lampert....
  
  (1969)
• The Learning Tree
  The Learning Tree
  The Learning Tree is a 1969 drama film which tells the story of a young African American growing up in rural Kansas during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when racial discrimination was a social norm, legally sanctioned in parts of the United States. Written and directed by Gordon Parks, the film...
  
  (1969)
• Where It's at (1969)
• Halls of Anger
  Halls of Anger
  Halls of Anger is an American drama directed by Paul Bogart. The drama features Calvin Lockhart, Janet MacLachlan, Jeff Bridges and James A. Watson Jr.-Cast:* Calvin Lockhart as Quincy Davis* Janet MacLachlan as Lorraine Nash...
  
  (1970)
• The Great White Hope
  The Great White Hope (film)
  The Great White Hope is a 1970 biographical romantic drama film written and adapted from the Howard Sackler play of the same title. The film was directed by Martin Ritt, starring James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Chester Morris, Hal Holbrook, Beah Richards and Moses Gunn...
  
  (1970)
• Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came
  Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came
  Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came was a 1970 feature film.The plot is a mixture of comic and dramatic elements and concerns the reactions of a number of World War II veterans to the then contemporary US army.Directed by Hy Averback and produced by Fred Engles, the film includes Brian Keith,...
  
  (1970)
• The Steagle (1971)

Awards

Wins

• Academy Awards
  Academy Awards
  An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
  
  : Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, for From Here to Eternity; 1954.
• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, for Bonnie and Clyde; 1968.

Nominations

• Golden Globes: Golden Globe, Best Cinematography, Black and White, for All the King's Men; (1950)
• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, for The Harder They Fall, (1957).
• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, for Birdman of Alcatraz, 1963.
• Academy Awards; Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, for King Rat; 1966.

External links

• Burnett Guffey at Film Reference
• Film Noirs photographed by Burnett Guffey
• Burnett Guffey: four film trailers at Spike TV
  Spike TV
  Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
  
   (iFilm
  IFilm
  ifilm.com was an online archive of short films, movie trailers, and other video clips of interest. Ifilm.com was originally founded by independent filmmaker Raphael Raphael in 1997 as an independent film and media collective...
  
  )