Birth: Aug. 28, 1899
Guangdong, China
Death: Jul. 12, 1976
Hollywood
Los Angeles County
California, USA
Cinematographer. For over 50
years he was one of Hollywood’s top cameramen, and one of the few in his
profession who was known by name to the general public. Howe won Academy Awards
for “The Rose Tattoo” (1955) and “Hud” (1963), out of 10 nominations. His other
films include “Peter Pan” (1925), “Mantrap” (1926), “Viva Villa!” (1934), “The
Thin Man” (1934), “The Prisoner of Zenda” (1937), “Algiers” (1938), “The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1938), “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940), “Kings Row”
(1942), “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942), “Air Force” (1943), “Body and Soul”
(1947), “The Brave Bulls” (1951), “Come Back Little Sheba” (1953), “Picnic”
(1956), “The Sweet Smell of Success” (1957), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958), “Seconds”
(1966), “The Molly Maguires” (1970), and “Funny Lady” (1975). Howe was born
Wong Tung Jim in Kwantung, China. In the United States from 1904, he was raised
in the Northwest and for a time pursued a career as a professional boxer. He
entered films in 1917 as a janitor, slate boy for Cecil B. DeMille, and
assistant cameraman. His big break came in 1919 when he figured out a way to
make star Mary Miles Minter’s pale blue eyes register properly on the
insensitive film stock of the time, and he was promoted to director of
photography in 1922. Nicknamed “Low Key Howe” for his penchant for low-contrast
photography, he was an original and endlessly inventive artist. He used
hand-held cameras and deep-focus lensing long before those techniques became
fashionable. For the boxing drama “Body and Soul” he put on roller skates and
climbed into the ring to shoot the fight scenes, and he strapped cameras to the
actors’ waists for a different perspective in “The Brave Bulls”. His moody
style also helped define the look of Warner Bros. pictures of the 1940s. After
1970 failing health forced Howe to turn down a number of plum offers, including
an invitation from director Francis Ford Coppola to film “The Godfather”. For
several years he had a relationship with novelist Sanora Babb, but they were
not allowed to marry until California’s anti-miscegenation laws were repealed
in 1949. They were together when Howe died of cancer at 76. (bio by: Bobb
Edwards)
Family links:
Spouse:
Sanora Babb (1907 - 2005)*
*Calculated relationship
Burial:
Westwood Memorial Park
Los Angeles
Los Angeles County
California, USA
Plot: Sanctuary Of Tranquility
GPS (lat/lon): 34.05871,
-118.44102
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: May 16, 1999
Find A Grave Memorial# 5428
Birth: Apr. 21, 1907
Death: Dec. 31, 2005
Author. She was born in Otoe
Indian Community in Oklahoma and died in her home in Hollywood Hills,
California. She is best remembered for her book “Whose Names Are Unknown,” an
acutely observed chronicle of one family’s flight from the drought and dust
storms of the high plains to the migrant camps of California during the 1930s.
She was the widow of Oscar-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe, whom she
dated in the 1940s in defiance of California’s anti-miscegenation laws. Babb
wrote five books, including a novelized memoir, a volume of poetry and a
collection of short stories. Two of her stories were chosen for the 1950 and
1960 editions of the distinguished anthology series “Best American Short
Stories,” edited by Martha Foley. At the beginning of her career, she
eventually found a job as a radio scriptwriter and wrote stories and poems that
appeared in literary magazines, including the Prairie Schooner, the Anvil and
Southwest Review. Many of her friends were struggling writers, including
William Saroyan, John Fante, Carlos Bulosan, John Sanford, Meridel Le Sueur and
Ralph Ellison. Babb joined the Communist Party and, like many other left-leaning
writers of her generation, sought foreign adventures, visiting the Soviet Union
in 1936 and reporting on the Spanish Civil War for the British journal This
Week. Over the next decade, Babb edited literary magazines that helped
introduce the work of Bradbury and B. Traven, author of “The Treasure of the
Sierra Madre,” among others. During the 1940s, Babb ran a Chinese restaurant that Howe
owned in North Hollywood. In 1950, during the heat of the communist witch
hunts, she spent more than a year in Mexico. During her self-imposed
exile, she completed “The Lost Traveler,” inspired by her complex relationship
with her father. Issued in 1958, it was her first published novel. Her other
books include “An Owl on Every Post,” a 1970 memoir of her childhood in the
Colorado wilderness that William Fadiman, writing in the Los Angeles Times,
called “an evocative glimpse of a vanished era”; “Cry of the Tinamou,” a 1997
compilation of short stories; and “Told in the Seed,” a 1998 collection of
poems. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)
Family links:
Spouse:
James Wong Howe (1899 - 1976)
Burial:
Unknown
Created by: José L Bernabé
Tronchoni
Record added: Jan 09, 2006
Find A Grave Memorial# 12937809
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