Michael Ballhaus

Michael Ballhaus
Ballhaus in 2007
Born	(1935-08-05)5 August 1935 Berlin, Nazi Germany
Died	12 April 2017(2017-04-12) (aged 81) Berlin, Germany
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1959–2013
Organization	American Society of Cinematographers
Known for	Broadcast News Goodfellas The Age of Innocence The Departed
Spouse(s)	Helga Betten ​ ​ (m. 1958; died 2006)​ Sherry Hormann ​ ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	Sebastian Ballhaus Florian Ballhaus
Awards	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography 1990 Goodfellas Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula Boston Society of Film Critics Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography 1994 The Fabulous Baker Boys

Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. (5 August 1935 – 12 April 2017) was a German cinematographer who collaborated with directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols and James L. Brooks. He was a member of both the Academy of Arts, Berlin, and the American Society of Cinematographers.

Life and career[]

Ballhaus was born in Berlin as the son of German actors Lena Hutter and Oskar Ballhaus.^[1] Ballhaus was influenced by family friend Max Ophüls,^[2] and appeared as an extra in Ophüls' last film Lola Montès (1955).^[3]

He came to prominence with his work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder beginning with Whity (1971), in addition to The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Chinese Roulette (1976) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978). In 1990, he was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.^[4]

After settling in the United States he worked on many American films, such as Baby It's You (1983) for John Sayles; Old Enough (1984) for Marisa Silver; Under the Cherry Moon (1986) for Prince; After Hours (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York (2002) and The Departed (2006) for Martin Scorsese; Broadcast News (1987) and I'll Do Anything (1994) for James L. Brooks; The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) for Steve Kloves; Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) for Francis Ford Coppola; Sleepers (1996) for Barry Levinson; and Wild Wild West (1999) for Barry Sonnenfeld.

Ballhaus was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Broadcast News, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Gangs of New York, but never won. Despite this, he did win the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Bram Stoker's Dracula; both the Boston Society of Film Critics and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography for his work on The Fabulous Baker Boys; and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Goodfellas.

His documentary In Berlin, made with Ciro Cappellari, was released in May 2009.

Ballhaus's final film was Sherry Hormann's 3096 Days in 2013.

Personal life and death[]

Helga Maria Betten Ballhaus, Ballhaus' first wife from 1958, appeared in a handful of films, such as those directed by Fassbinder; she died in 2006. Their son Florian is also a cinematographer who worked on Flightplan and The Devil Wears Prada. In 2011, he married German-American film director Sherry Hormann, who is known for Desert Flower.^[5] Ballhaus was also a nephew of German stage and film actor Carl Balhaus, who starred in The Blue Angel and M.^[6]

Ballhaus died at his home in Berlin on 12 April 2017, at the age of 81, after a short illness.^[7]

Filmography[]

Awards[]

• 2007 Bavarian Film Awards Honorary Award

See also[]

• List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Ballhaus.

• Michael Ballhaus at IMDb
• Cinemascope interview
• Michael Ballhaus in Genealogy Wiki