Floyd Delafield Crosby, ASC (December 12, 1899September 30, 1985) was an American

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

. He won the

Academy Award for Best Cinematography The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work on one particular motion picture. History In its first film season, 1927–28, this award (like others such as the acting awards) w ...

in 1931 for '' Tabu: A Story of the South Seas'', his debut film, before going on to shoot over 120 productions in a career spanning over 40 years. Crosby worked with such directors as

Fred Zinnemann Alfred Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an American film director and producer. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thriller film, thrillers, western (genre), westerns, film ...

. Beginning in the 1950's, he was the regular cinematographer for

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he w ...

, totaling 21 films together. Crosby was also the father of singer-songwriter

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer the genres of folk rock and psychedelic music, psych ...

Early life

Floyd Delafield Crosby was born and raised in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

, the son of Julia Floyd () and Frederick Van Schoonhoven Crosby. Through his maternal grandmother, he was descended from the prominent Van Rensselaer family. His maternal grandfather was Dr. Francis Delafield. His maternal uncle was Edward Henry Delafield (18801955). Crosby worked at the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

, before enrolling in the New York Institute of Photography.

Career

In 1927, he was hired by marine biologist

William Beebe Charles William Beebe ( ; July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962) was an American natural history, naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New Y ...

as a cameraman for his expedition to

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. The expedition would establish Crosby as a top documentary cameraman, befriending

Robert J. Flaherty Robert Joseph Flaherty, (; February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, '' Nanook of the North'' (1922). The film made his reputati ...

. In 1929, Flaherty hired Crosby to shoot the ethnographic film '' Tabu: A Story of the South Seas'', directed by F. W. Murnau. It was Crosby's first photography credit on a feature film, and earned him Best Cinematography at the

4th Academy Awards The 4th Academy Awards were held on November 10, 1931, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Ac ...

. Crosby subsequently filmed the Bedaux expedition in 1934, and shot other documentaries for the likes of

Pare Lorentz Pare Lorentz (December 11, 1905 – March 4, 1992) was an American filmmaker known for his film work about the New Deal. Born Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz in Clarksburg, West Virginia he was educated at Buckhannon-Upshur High School#History, Buck ...

and

Joris Ivens Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are '' A Tale of the Wind'', ''The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', '' Misèr ...

. He served as a cinematographer for the U.S. Army Air Corps film wing, and made

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

films in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He left the Air Corps in 1946. His disinterest in studio politics dissuaded him from working on traditional feature films, and he remained a somewhat fringe figure until 1951, when

Robert Rossen Robert Rossen (March 16, 1908 – February 18, 1966) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film '' All the King's Men'' won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and B ...

hired him to shoot ''The Brave Bulls''. The following year, he shot ''

High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western (genre), Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in Real time (media), real time, centers ...

'' (1952) for director

, which went on to win four

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

. Crosby won a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White). In the following years, Crosby worked primarily with

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

director

. Beginning with '' Five Guns West'' (1955), the two worked on a total of 21 films between 1955 and 1967. Crosby also shot many other films for Corman's

American International Pictures American International Pictures, LLC (AIP or American International Productions) is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution c ...

. Some sources claimed Crosby was relegated to working on B-movies because he had been

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

, though Corman denied this, stating Crosby's simply disliked traditional studio politics. In 1973, he participated in an oral history sponsored by the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

, part of which dealt with his work on ''Tabu: A Story of the South Seas''.https://archive.org/details/TapeIISideOneTapeIISideTwo2BRepaired92617

Personal life and death

On December 11, 1930, he married Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead. She was the daughter of John Brinton Whitehead. Together, they had two children: * Ethan Crosby (1937–1997), a reclusive singer-songwriter *

(1941–2023), a member of

the Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...

and

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was a folk rock Supergroup (music), supergroup comprising the American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and the English-American singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by the Canadian singer-so ...

Crosby divorced in 1960 and married Betty Cormack Andrews in the same year. He retired in 1972 to

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara, California, Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east– ...

, where he died at the age of 85 in 1985.

Selected filmography

* '' Tabu: A Story of the South Seas'' (1931) * ''Mato Grosso: the Great Brazilian Wilderness'' (1931) * '' The Plow That Broke the Plains'' (1936) * '' The River'' (1937) * ''

The Fight for Life ''The Fight for Life'' is a 1940 American medical drama film directed by Pare Lorentz. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, Best Original Score of a Picture composed by Louis Gruenberg and released by Columbia Pic ...

'' (1940) * '' Power and the Land'' (1940) * '' It's All True'' * '' The Land'' (1942) * '' Traffic with the Devil'' (1946) * '' My Father's House'' (1947) * '' Of Men and Music'' (1950) * '' The Brave Bulls'' (1952) * '' Devil Take Us'' (1952) * ''

'' (1952) * '' The Steel Lady'' (1953) * '' Five Guns West'' (1954) * '' Naked Paradise'' (1956) * '' Attack of the Crab Monsters'' (1956) * '' Rock All Night'' (1956) * '' She Gods of Shark Reef'' (1957) * ''

The Old Man and the Sea ''The Old Man and the Sea'' is a 1952 novella by the American author Ernest Hemingway. Written between December 1950 and February 1951, it was the last major fictional work Hemingway published during his lifetime. It tells the story of Santiag ...

'' (1958) * '' The Screaming Skull'' (1958) * '' War of the Satellites'' (1958) * '' Machine-Gun Kelly'' (1958) * '' I Mobster'' (1958) * '' The Cry Baby Killer'' (1958) * '' The Wonderful Country'' (1959) * '' Crime and Punishment U.S.A.'' (1959) * ''

Freckles Freckles are clusters of concentrated melaninized cells which are most easily visible on people with a fair complexion. Freckles do not have an increased number of the melanin-producing cells, or melanocytes, but instead have melanocytes that ...

'' (1960) * '' House of Usher'' (1960) * ''

The Explosive Generation ''The Explosive Generation'' is a 1961 film directed by Buzz Kulik. It stars William Shatner and Patty McCormack. Plot The story is about Peter Gifford, a teacher who wants to teach high school students to think for themselves and express thems ...

'' (1960) * '' The Pit and the Pendulum'' (1961) * '' A Cold Wind in August'' (1961) * '' The Premature Burial'' (1962) * '' Tales of Terror'' (1962) * '' Hand of Death'' (1962) * '' The Young Racers'' (1963) * ''

The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a visit ...

'' (1963) * ''

The Yellow Canary ''The Yellow Canary'' is a 1963 American thriller film directed by Buzz Kulik and starring Pat Boone and Barbara Eden. It was adapted by Rod Serling from a novel by Whit Masterson, who also wrote the novel that was the basis for Orson Welles' '' ...

'' (1963) * '' X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes'' (1963) * '' Black Zoo'' (1963) * '' The Haunted Palace'' (1963) * '' Sallah Shabati'' (1964) * ''

The Comedy of Terrors ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' (1964) * '' Pajama Party'' (1964) * '' Indian Paint'' (1965) * '' Fireball 500'' (1966) * '' The Cool Ones'' (1967)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crosby, Floyd 1899 births 1985 deaths American cinematographers American people of Dutch descent Best Cinematographer Academy Award winners Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Delafield family First Motion Picture Unit personnel Military personnel from Pennsylvania Military personnel from Philadelphia Photographers from Philadelphia United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II