Joseph Ruttenberg

Joseph Ruttenberg, A.S.C. (July 4, 1889 - May 1, 1983) was a Russian-born American photojournalist and cinematographer.

Ruttenberg was accomplished at winning accolades. At MGM, Ruttenberg was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography 10 times, winning four. In addition, he won the 1954 Golden Globe Award for his camera work on the film Brigadoon.

Born into a Jewish family in BerdychivZhytomyr oblast, Ukraine, Joseph Ruttenbergemigrated to the United States, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts on 7 January 1895. As a young man he went to work at the Boston Globe as a photojournalist but left in 1915 to accept a job with the Fox Film Corporation in New York City to train as a cinematographer. Two years later, he was behind the camera for The Painted Madonna (1917), which marked the start of a remarkably successful career.

In the late 1920s, Ruttenberg went to work for Paramount Pictures in New York. His first assignment for a sound film was The Struggle (1931), D.W. Griffith's final film. In 1934, Ruttenberg signed with MGM, moving to Hollywood where he was invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers.

Joseph Ruttenberg retired from MGM in 1968 and died in Los Angeles on May 1, 1983.

• "Photographing Pre-Production Tests," in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), January 1956.
• "Sound-Stage Sea Saga," in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), April 1960.
• Positif (Paris), September 1972.
• Seminar in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), July 1975.
• Focus on Film (London), Spring 1976.
• In Dance in the Hollywood Musical, by Jerome Delamater, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981.
• Film History (Philadelphia), vol. 1, no. 1, 1987.