Other names Dal Clawson Title A.S.C. founding member | Name L. Clawson Role Cinematographer | |
Full Name Lawrence Dallin Clawson Born October 5, 1885 ( 1885-10-05 ) Salt Lake City, Utah Died July 18, 1937, Englewood, New Jersey, United States Movies Miss Suwanna of Siam, Black and Tan, Hypocrites, Back to God's Country, Civilization Similar People Lois Weber, Thomas H Ince, Frank Lloyd, Raoul Walsh, Reginald Barker | ||
Lawrence Dallin Clawson founded the American Society of Cinematographers.
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Biography
He was born around 4 October 1885 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Mary Jones Clawson.
His first known feature credits as a cinematographer are for director Lois Weber at Bosworth, Inc., and Universal in 1914–15. This was after graduating from the University of Utah as a mechanical engineer. He also worked for the American Film Company and Ince-Triangle-KayBee, where photographic superintendent and future director Irvin Willat would remember Clawson as “sort of like a news cameraman” who was not especially noted for his lighting style. He also worked around the world, even being decorated by the King of Siam for his work. His book on this adventure was entitled How I Shot the King of Siam.
By the early 1920s, Clawson was chief cinematographer for popular star Anita Stewart at Louis B. Mayer Productions, but later in the decade, he often worked as a second cameraman. He was lead cinematographer on the early talkie Syncopation, but his few remaining published credits are for expedition films such as Hunting Tigers in India (1929) and low-budget East Coast productions such as The Black King and The Horror (both 1932).
Clawson died at a hospital in Englewood, New Jersey, on July 18, 1937 of an intestinal malady. He died within an hour of his own mother's death.