Conrad L. Hall

Conrad Lafcadio Hall, ASC (June 21,1926 – January 4, 2003) was an American cinematographer from Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia. Named after writers Joseph Conrad and Lafcadio Hearn, he was best known for photographing films, such as Morituri, The Professionals, In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Day of the Locust, Tequila Sunrise, Searching for Bobby Fischer, A Civil Action, American Beauty and Road to Perdition, which gained him several awards, including three Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. Sam Mendes, the director of Road to Perdition, dedicated the film to Hall.

Hall attended the University of Southern California, intending to study journalism, but drifted instead to the university’s cinema school, from which he graduated in 1949. He worked on documentaries, in television (The Outer Limits) and minor films (including cult classic Incubus), and as a studio camera operator before moving up to cinematographer in major studio films in the mid-1960s.

Hall received three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), American Beauty (1999), and Road to Perdition (2002) (the last two directed by friend Sam Mendes). The thirty-year gap between his first two Oscars is a record for this award. —wikipedia