Born: 31 July 1905 [other sources: 1907], Storm Lake, Iowa, USA.

Died: 20 March 1979, Santa Monica, Calif., USA.

Education: California Institute of Technology [CIT], Pasadena [graduated in 1931].

Career: Moved to California in 1924. After his graduation from CIT he became a research physicist. Joined Technicolor in 1934 [until 1954] to work on its three-color process. He ph a number of Technicolor travelogues, the 'Traveltalk - The Voice of the Globe'-series, prod and narrated by James A. FitzPatrick.

During WW2 served in the US Naval Photographic Science Lab. After leaving Technicolor joined C.V. Whitney Productions.

In 1956, Hoch directed (and ph?) the doc 'Grass', a remake of the 1925 doc dir by Merian Cooper & Ernest Schoedsack, for C.V. Whitney Productions.

Was a member and president [1979] of the ASC.

Awards: 'Oscar' Technical Achievement Award [1939; shared] for an auxiliary optical system; 'Oscar' AA [1948; color; shared] for 'Joan of Arc'; 'Oscar' AA [1949; color] for 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'; 'Oscar' AA [1952; color; shared] for 'The Quiet Man'; 'Emmy' Award [1965-66] for 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'; 'Emmy' Award nom [1967-68] for 'The Time Tunnel' [ep 'Raiders from Outer Space'].

'The work left behind by Winton Hoch is the vindication of Technicolor as a creative means. Unique of his generation, Hoch rose to director of photography from the chemistry labs where color stock was developed; he never shot a foot of monochrome stock. The best efforts of a cameraman of Hoch's talents will not redeem a leaden 'Joan of Arc' but they can underscore with unforgettable beauty the other qualities of 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' and 'The Quiet Man'. Where [James Wong] Howe and [Arthur] Miller went for a subtle naturalism in their best color work, Hoch gave full rein to the effects made possible by the filters and manipulative processing he knew better than anyone else. It is known that Hoch and [John] Ford were temperamentally unsuited [pedantic, Ford called him], but inevitably the Hoch reputation rides high on the Ford films, and that is perhaps as it should be. Neither man needed the other, but Ford benefited beyond measure from Hoch's genius, and we have the results...' [Derek Owen in 'Film Dope', No. 24, 1982.]

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In the written history of film, John Ford has tended to get credit for most of Winton C. Hoch's accomplishments. Articles and books are churned out that praise Ford's 'eye for color' and 'visual sense.' These attributes he undoubtedly had, but it was Hoch's 'eye for color' - and his peerless technical expertise at putting that eye at the service of Ford's pictorial and narrative concerns - that impart such rare visual beauty to 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon', 'The Quiet Man', and 'The Searchers'.

Hoch never shot a film in black-and-white. His years of experience as a technician in the Technicolor laboratories gave him a unique perspective in the uses and possibilities of color cinematography. Throughout his thirty-year career, he supplied sumptuous color images to many films, but his five pictures for John Ford remain the backbone of his work. In '3 Godfathers', 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' [for which he won his only solo 'Oscar'], 'The Quiet Man', 'Mister Roberts', and 'The Searchers', Hoch provided the director with some of his most elegant and striking images. The three westerns were shot on Ford's favorite location - Monument Valley, a spot which has proved unusually receptive to any number of visual approaches. Winton Hoch was responsible for capturing its unworldly beauty in Technicolor that was by turns stark, luscious, symbolic, and rousing. Hoch's seasoned eye saw the links between the red of blood and clay and the blue of sky and cavalry uniform. Monument Valley, through Hoch's lens, could be flag, desert, hellish void, nourishing Eden. Hoch's brilliant use of the medium should stand forever at the art's highest plane. [From article by Frank Thompson.]

1936        Rio de Janeiro "City of Splendour" [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/7m

1936        Yellowstone Park "Nature's Playground" [James H. Smith] c; doc/9m

1936        Quaint Quebec [Benjamin D. Sharpe] c; doc/9m

1936        India on Parade [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m

1937        Colorful Bombay [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1937        Glimpses of Java and Ceylon [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1937        Hong Kong "The Hub of the Orient" [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/8m

1937        Serene Siam [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1937        Rocky Mountain Grandeur [James H. Smith] c; doc/8m

1937        Glimpses of Peru [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1937        Chile "Land of Charm" [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m

1937        Land of the Incas [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1937        Copenhagen [Ralph F. Donaldson] c; doc/9m

1937        Stockholm "Pride of Sweden" [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1937        Rural Sweden [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/8m

1938        Natural Wonders of the West [James H. Smith] c; doc/9m

1938        Glimpses of Austria [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m

1938        Beautiful Budapest [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1938        Rural Hungary [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m

1938        Czechoslovakia on Parade [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/10m

1938        Glimpses of New Brunswick [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1939        Dr. Cyclops/Doctor Cyclops [Ernest B. Schoedsack] c; assoc ph; ph: Henry Sharp

1940        The Reluctant Dragon/A Day at Disneys/Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney Studio/A Day at the Studio (20m excerpt)

                    [(live action) Alfred L. Werker & (anim) Hamilton Luske, Ub Iwerks, a.o.] b&w-c; anim + live action; color ph

                    (live action); b&w ph (live action): Bert Glennon

1941        Memories of Europe [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/?m; cph: Ray Rennahan; comp of previous ep 'Traveltalk'-series

1941        Dive Bomber [Michael Curtiz] c; cph: Bert Glennon; aph: Elmer Dyer; sfx ph: Byron Haskin & Rex Wimpy

1941        Captains of the Clouds [Michael Curtiz] c; co-aph; ph: Wilfred M. Cline & Sol Polito

1944        Over the Andes [J.A. FitzPatrick] c; doc/9m

1946        So Dear to My Heart [Harold Schuster & (anim) Hamilton Luske] c; anim + live action; live action ph; released in 1949

1947        Rhapsody in Wood [George Pal] c; 'Puppetoon'-short (live action + puppet anim)/9m

1947        Melody Time [seg 'Pecos Bill' dir by Clyde Geronimi] c; anim + live action/75m; ph live action

1947        Tap Roots [George Marshall] c; cph: Lionel Lindon

1947        Joan of Arc [Victor Fleming] c; co-Technicolor ph; ph: Joseph Valentine; spec pfx: Jack Cosgrove & John P. Fulton

1948        Carbon Arc Projection [Norman Wright] ?; doc/?m

1948        3 Godfathers/Three Godfathers [John Ford] c; 2uc: Charles P. Boyle

1948        Tulsa [Stuart Heisler] c

1948        She Wore a Yellow Ribbon [John Ford] c; 2uc: Charles P. Boyle & (uncred) Archie Stout

1949        The Sundowners/Thunder in the Dust [George Templeton] c

1949        Jet Pilot [Josef von Sternberg; re-shaped & re-edited by Howard Hughes] RKO-Scope/c; aph: Philip C. Cochran, William

                    H. Clothier & Paul Mantz; released in 1957

1950        Halls of Montezuma [Lewis Milestone] c; cph: Harry Jackson; spec pfx: Fred Sersen

1950        Bird of Paradise [Delmer Daves] c

1951        The Quiet Man [John Ford] c; 2uc: Archie Stout

1952        The Redhead From Wyoming [Lee Sholem] c

1952        Salome [: The Dance of the Seven Veils] [William Dieterle] c; loc ph; ph: Charles Lang Jr.

1952        Return to Paradise [Mark Robson] c

1953        A Star Is Born [George Cukor] started as ph (replacing Harry Stradling Sr.) in October; prod was halted after 8 days; a

                    change in format from WarnerScope to CinemaScope resulted in his replacement by Sam Leavitt

1954        Mister Roberts [John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy (replaced J. Ford); (some scenes uncred) Joshua Logan] cs/c

1955        The Searchers [John Ford] vv/c; 2uc: Alfred Gilks

1957        The Missouri Traveler [Jerry Hopper] c

1957        The Young Land [Ted Tetzlaff] c; cph: Henry Sharp

1958        Darby O'Gill and the Little People [Robert Stevenson] c; spec pfx: Peter Ellenshaw & Eustace Lycett

1958        This Earth Is Mine [Henry King] cs/c; cph: Russell Metty; started the film, but fell ill and was replaced by R. Metty; spph:

                    Clifford Stine

1959        The Big Circus [Joseph M. Newman] cs/c

1960        The Lost World [Irwin Allen] cs/c; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott, James B. Gordon & Emil Kosa Jr.

1960        A Light in Nature [Ramsay Short & Michael Orrom (USA)] c; doc/?m; ph USA seq; ph: ?

1961        Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [Irwin Allen] cs/c; uwph: John Lamb; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott

1961        Sergeants 3 [John Sturges] p/c

1962        Five Weeks in a Balloon [Irwin Allen] cs/c; spec pfx: L.B. Abbott & Emil Kosa Jr.

1964        Robinson Crusoe on Mars [Byron Haskin] ts/c; process ph: Farciot Edouart

1966        Aliens from Another Planet [Irwin Allen (pilot 'Rendezvous with Yesterday') & Sobey Martin (ep #18 'Visitors from

                    Beyond the Stars' & #24 'Chase Through Time')] c; comp of 3 ep of tv-series 'The Time Tunnel'; released in 1982

1967        The Green Berets [John Wayne & Ray Kellogg; (uncred) Mervyn LeRoy] p/c; battle seq ph: Vincent & Ted Saizis

1972        Necromancy/A Life for a Life/Rosemary's Disciples/The Toy Factory [Bert I. Gordon] c; reissued in 1983 as 'The Witching'