About John Alton
John Alton (born Johann Jacob Altmann; October 5, 1901 – June 2, 1996) was an American cinematographer of Hungarian-Austrian origin. Alton photographed some of the most famous films noir of the classic period and won an Academy Award for the cinematography of An American in Paris (1951), becoming the first Hungarian-born person to do so in the cinematography category. He also worked as a director during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema. His work has been honored at film festivals in Vienna, Japan, Argentina, Telluride, and San Francisco, as well as in retrospectives at the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Pacific Film Archives. He claimed he discovered Maurice Chevalier. He won a prize for best photography in Argentina in 1937.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.