Rudolph Maté

Rudolph Maté, born Rudolf Mayer (21 January 1898 – 27 October 1964), was a European and American cinematographer, film director and film producer who worked as cameraman and cinematographer in Hungary, Austria, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, before moving to Hollywood in the mid 1930s.

Life and career

Born in Kraków (then in the Grand Duchy of Krakow, now in Poland) into a Jewish family, Maté started in the film business after his graduation from the University of Budapest. He went on to work as an assistant cameraman in Hungary and later throughout Europe, sometimes with colleague Karl Freund. Maté worked on several of Carl Th. Dreyer's films, including The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Vampyr (1932).

Maté worked as cinematographer on Hollywood films from the mid-1930s, including Dodsworth (1936), the Laurel and Hardy feature Our Relations (1936) and Stella Dallas (1937). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in five consecutive years, for Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940), Alexander Korda's That Hamilton Woman (1941), Sam Wood's The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Zoltan Korda's Sahara (1943), and Charles Vidor's Cover Girl (1944).