Portrait of Karl Freund

Birthday profile

Karl Freund

German film director and cinematographer (1890-1969)

Born
January 16, 1890
Died
May 3, 1969
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1890

About Karl Freund

Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. (German: [frɔʏnt]; January 16, 1890 – May 3, 1969) was a German Bohemian and American cinematographer and film director. He is best known for photographing Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and television's I Love Lucy (1951–1957), and for directing The Mummy (1932). Freund was an innovator in the field of cinematography, often noted for pioneering the unchained camera technique, arguably the most important stylistic innovation of the 20th century, setting the stage for some of the most commonly used cinematic techniques of modern contemporary cinema. For the first time, the camera was free of the tripod and could move around the set. He won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Good Earth (1937). In 1944 he founded the Photo Research Corporation of Burbank to manufacture TV cameras and exposure meters.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Karl Freund timeline

  1. He won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Good Earth (1937).
  2. In 1944 he founded the Photo Research Corporation of Burbank to manufacture TV cameras and exposure meters.

The world when Karl Freund was born

Karl Freund was born in 1890. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineWounded Knee Massacre — last major conflict with Native Americans
  • Technology milestoneElectric chair used for first execution
  • Notable inventionElectric chair
  • World population~1.5B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderBenjamin Harrison
  • U.S. population63.0M

1890 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Karl Freund's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18902026
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population63.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.