Ernest Miller (cinematographer)
Quick Facts
Biography
Ernest Miller (March 7, 1885 – April 23, 1957) was an American cinematographer who was nominated for an Academy Award at the 1939 Oscars for Best Cinematography for the film Army Girl, sharing the nomination with Harry J. Wild. He had nearly 350 film and television credits to his name, mostly Westerns, including some of the early episodes of Gunsmoke. Location work on Army Girl was done primarily at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., where Miller cut his teeth in B-Westerns and became one of the most prolific -- and one of the best -- of the site's shooters during the course of his career. His camera work at Iverson became identifiable for Miller's trademark use of the site's charismatic sandstone rock features as framing devices, as he incorporated the giant boulders into the artistry of the outdoor action shots in ways that few cinematographers could match.
Selected filmography
- The Coast Patrol (1925)
- On to Reno (1928)
- The Night Flyer (1928)
- The Grain of Dust (1928)
- The Whispering Shadow (1933)
- Laughing at Life (1933)
- In Old Santa Fe (1934)
- Behind the Green Lights (1935)
- Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935)
- Hearts in Bondage (1936)
- Affairs of Cappy Ricks (1937)
- The Wrong Road (1937)
- Exiled to Shanghai (1937)
- Romance on the Run (1938)
- The Old Barn Dance (1938)
- Call of the Yukon (1938)
- Billy the Kid Returns (1938)
- Gangs of New York (1938)
- Joan of Ozark (1942)
- The Chance of a Lifetime (1943)
- Thumbs Up (1943)
- The Purple V (1943)
- Black Hills Express (1943)
- The Tiger Woman (1944)
- Bells of Rosarita (1945)
- I Shot Jesse James (1949)
- The Steel Helmet (1951)