Biographie

6 mai 1904 · Miami, Oklahoma, États-Unis

1 octobre 1988 · Rancho Mirage, Californie, États-Unis (accident de la route)

Lucien Keith Ballard

Designed a special spotlight to light then-wife Merle Oberon's face that had sustained scars in a near-fatal car crash in London in 1937. The device known as the "Obie" (Oberon's nickname) is usually mounted next to the camera where it lights the subject's face head on, thus reducing the incidence of unflattering facial lines and shadows.

According to Henryk Hoffmann's 'A' Western Filmmakers: A Biographical Dictionary, Lucien Ballard was part Cherokee (p. 189).

Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

He was appointed the cinematographer for "Laura", working with director Rouben Mamoulian. The great friction between Mamoulian and producer Otto Preminger - who made no secret of his desire to direct the film himself - included Ballard, who sided with his director against Preminger, and treated the latter with contempt (or so Preminger said). When Mamoulian was fired as director, Preminger took over and re-shot everything, also replacing Ballard immediately.

He worked on six films for Budd Boetticher, five for Henry Hathaway (plus Hathaway's segment of "O. Henry's Full House") and five for Sam Peckinpah (plus three segments of Peckinpah's TV series, "The Westerner").

[on making La chute d'un caïd (1960)] We wanted to go for an authentic atmosphere for the 1920s where the film was showing. So after seeing some of the rushes, the producer went to Boetticher [director Budd Boetticher] and said, "I thought you said Ballard was a great cameraman - this looks like it was shot in 1920!" And Budd said, "It's SUPPOSED to look like it was shot in 1920!"