Early Life and Career
Born in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Hall was the son of writer James Norman Hall and Sarah (Lala) Winchester Hall, who was part-Polynesian. 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, who dedicated Road to Perdition to Hall). The thirty-year gap between his first two Oscars is a record for this award.
Additionally, Hall was nominated for Morituri (1965), The Professionals (1966), In Cold Blood (1967), The Day of the Locust (1975), Tequila Sunrise (1988), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), and A Civil Action (1998). Other credits include Divorce American Style (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Marathon Man (1976) and Love Affair (1994).
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