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Leon Shamroy, A.S.C. (July 16, 1901 – July 7, 1974) was an American film cinematographer. Together with Charles Lang, he holds the record for most number of Academy Award nominations for Cinematography. Throughout his five-decade career, he garnered eighteen nominations with four wins. In 1889, Leon Shamroy’s Russian father came to the United States to visit his brother, a revolutionary who had fled the homeland and had become a doctor in the new land. As fate would have it, Shamroy Sr. liked the United States so much that he decided to stay. After he settled, the future... MORE

Leon Shamroy, A.S.C. (July 16, 1901 – July 7, 1974) was an American film cinematographer. Together with Charles Lang, he holds the record for most number of Academy Award nominations for Cinematography. Throughout his five-decade career, he garnered eighteen nominations with four wins. In 1889, Leon Shamroy’s Russian father came to the United States to visit his brother, a revolutionary who had fled the homeland and had become a doctor in the new land. As fate would have it, Shamroy Sr. liked the United States so much that he decided to stay. After he settled, the future cinematographer’s father took a degree in chemistry at Columbia University, and then later opened a drugstore. Indeed, the Shamroy family was composed of achievers, for three of Shamroy Sr.’s brothers were engineers. Enter young Leon Shamroy. Leon Shamroy, ASC, was born in New York City on July 16th, 1901. He was educated at Cooper Union (1918), City College of New York (1919-1920), and Columbia University (where he studied mechanical engineering). A product of a practical-minded family, after school young Leon often worked in one of his uncle’s offices as a junior draftsman. Eventually he became an engineer LESS