Lucien Ballard
Highest Rated: 100% A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
Lowest Rated: 40% A Time for Dying (1969)
Birthday: May 6, 1908
Birthplace: Miami, Oklahoma, USA
Highly distinguished and versatile cinematographer of several black-and-white classics who began his career as a cutter and assistant cameraman with Paramount. After working as secondary photographer of both "Morocco" (1930) and as co-cinematographer with Von Sternberg on "The Devil Is a Woman" (1935), Ballard was moved to the front ranks for the third of his four collaborations with Josef von Sternberg, "Crime and Punishment" (1935) and then worked on numerous second-echelon Columbia films during the late 1930s and early 40s. He came into his own as an acclaimed black-and-white cinematographer with Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956) and as a specialist in lush, outdoor color photography for the action and Western films of Henry Hathaway, Sam Peckinpah and Budd Boetticher with whom he worked multiple times. He lensed several films starring Merle Oberon, to whom he was married from 1945 to 1949.
Filmography
Movies
| Credit | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57% | 43% | Breakout | Cinematographer | - | 1975 |
| No Score Yet | 50% | Thomasine & Bushrod | Cinematographer | - | 1974 |
| 86% | 81% | The Getaway | Cinematographer | - | 1972 |
| 92% | 63% | Junior Bonner | Cinematographer | - | 1972 |
| 55% | 41% | What's the Matter With Helen? | Cinematographer | - | 1971 |
| 92% | 93% | Elvis: That's the Way It Is | Cinematographer | - | 1970 |
| 94% | 81% | The Ballad of Cable Hogue | Cinematographer | - | 1970 |
| 40% | No Score Yet | A Time for Dying | Cinematographer | - | 1969 |
| 91% | 90% | The Wild Bunch | Cinematographer | - | 1969 |
| 89% | 84% | True Grit | Cinematographer | - | 1969 |
| 83% | 88% | The Party | Cinematographer | - | 1968 |
| 50% | 64% | Nevada Smith | Cinematographer | - | 1966 |
| No Score Yet | 55% | Dear Brigitte | Cinematographer | - | 1965 |
| 56% | 56% | Roustabout | Cinematographer | - | 1964 |
| No Score Yet | 17% | The Caretakers | Cinematographer | - | 1963 |
| No Score Yet | 67% | Take Her, She's Mine | Cinematographer | - | 1963 |
| No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Wall of Noise | Cinematographer | - | 1963 |
| 89% | 83% | Ride the High Country | Cinematographer | - | 1962 |
| No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Marines, Let's Go | Cinematographer | - | 1961 |
| No Score Yet | 53% | Susan Slade | Cinematographer | - | 1961 |
| 90% | 75% | The Parent Trap | Cinematographer | - | 1961 |
| No Score Yet | 30% | Pay or Die | Cinematographer | - | 1960 |
| No Score Yet | 65% | Buchanan Rides Alone | Cinematographer | - | 1958 |
| 40% | 65% | Band of Angels | Cinematographer | - | 1957 |
| No Score Yet | 38% | The King and Four Queens | Cinematographer | - | 1956 |
| 100% | 49% | A Kiss Before Dying | Cinematographer | - | 1956 |
| 96% | 92% | The Killing | Cinematographer | - | 1956 |
| 60% | 38% | The Killer Is Loose | Cinematographer | - | 1956 |
| No Score Yet | 50% | Seven Cities of Gold | Cinematographer | - | 1955 |
| No Score Yet | 60% | The Raid | Cinematographer | - | 1954 |
| 100% | 52% | Inferno | Cinematographer | - | 1953 |
| No Score Yet | 66% | O. Henry's Full House | Cinematographer | - | 1952 |
| No Score Yet | 62% | The House on Telegraph Hill | Cinematographer | - | 1951 |
| 80% | 61% | Berlin Express | Cinematographer | - | 1948 |
| No Score Yet | 78% | Holy Matrimony | Cinematographer | - | 1943 |
| No Score Yet | 82% | Orchestra Wives | Cinematographer | - | 1942 |
| No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Villain Still Pursued Her | Cinematographer | - | 1940 |
| No Score Yet | 33% | Let Us Live | Cinematographer | - | 1939 |
| No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Girls Can Play | Cinematographer | - | 1937 |
| No Score Yet | No Score Yet | I Promise to Pay | Cinematographer | - | 1937 |
| No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Shadow | Cinematographer | - | 1937 |
| No Score Yet | 80% | The King Steps Out | Cinematographer | - | 1936 |
| 80% | 49% | Crime and Punishment | Cinematographer | - | 1935 |