Harry J. Wild

Director

New York City, New York, USA

July 5, 1901

Biography

Harry J. Wild, A.S.C. (July 5, 1901 - February 24, 1961) was a film and television cinematographer. Wild worked at RKO Pictures studios from 1931 through the 1950s. In total Wild was involved in 91 major film projects and two extended television series. In 1931, he began his career and was hired as second cameraman and operator on nine projects, most notably Fred Niblo's Young Donovan'a Kid (1931). In 1936, Wild shot his first feature, Wallace Fox's sports drama The Big Game. Two years later he shared an Academy Award nomination for the Republic Pictures film Army Girl (1938). According to film critic Spencer Selby, Wild was a prolific film noir cinematographer, shooting 13 of them, including: Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet (1944), Johnny Angel (1945), Nocturne (1946), the Jean Renoir-directed The Woman on the Beach (1947), They Won't Believe Me (1947), and others. He was also, in the early 1950s, Jane Russell's cinematographer; he worked on seven of her movies as an actress, three of which were released by other studios: His Kind of Woman (1951) and Son of Paleface (1952) for Paramount, and, his most widely seen movie, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) for Twentieth Century-Fox.