Quick Facts
Biography
Floyd Delafield Crosby, A.S.C. (December 12, 1899 – September 30, 1985) was an Academy Award winning American cinematographer who was a descendant of the Van Rensselaer family and the father of musicians Ethan and David Crosby.
Early life
Crosby was born and raised in West Philadelphia, the son of Julia Floyd (née Delafield) and Frederick Van Schoonhoven Crosby. Through his maternal grandmother, he was descended from the prominent Van Rensselaer family.
Career
During his career, Floyd Crosby was involved in the cinematography of more than 100 full-length movies. He won the 1931 Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the film Tabu. He was also the cinematographer for High Noon (1952), considered to be among his best work, and for which he won a Golden Globe Award. Crosby also worked with B-movie director Roger Corman on several films.
U.S. Army Air Corps
Crosby served as a cinematographer for the U.S. Army Air Corps film wing, and made flight training films in World War II. He left the Air Corps in 1946.
Personal life
In 1930, he married Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead and had two children:
- Ethan Crosby (1937–1997), a reclusive singer-songwriter
- David Crosby (born 1941), a member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Crosby divorced in 1960, and married Betty Cormack Andrews in the same year. He retired in 1972 to Ojai, California, where he died in 1985.
Selected filmography
- Tabu (1931) – Crosby won an Academy Award for cinematography at the fourth Academy Award celebration for his work on this film.
- Mato Grosso: the Great Brazilian Wilderness (1931), likely the first sync sound documentary made in the field, in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
- The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), a New Deal Resettlement Administration documentary directed by Pare Lorentz.
- The River (1937), a documentary.
- The Fight for Life (1940)
- Power and the Land (1940), a documentary.
- It's All True, an unfinished film by Orson Welles, sequence "My Friend Bonito" (1941) directed by Norman Foster
- The Land (1942), a documentary.
- Traffic with the Devil (1946), a documentary short nominated for an Academy Award.
- My Father's House (1947)
- Of Men and Music (1950), a documentary.
- The Brave Bulls (1952)
- Devil Take Us (1952), a documentary short nominated for two Academy Awards.
- High Noon (1952) – A western movie, generally considered to be his most contemporarily praised film.
- 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 (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 (1960)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
- The Explosive Generation (1960)
- The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) – One of several widescreen horror films Crosby shot for director Roger Corman.
- A Cold Wind in August (1961)
- The Premature Burial (1962)
- Tales of Terror (1962)
- Hand of Death (1962)
- The Young Racers (1963)
- The Raven (1963)
- The Yellow Canary (1963)
- X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
- Black Zoo (1963)
- The Haunted Palace (1963)
- Comedy of Terrors (1964)
- Pajama Party (1964)
- Fireball 500 (1966)
- The Cool Ones (1967)