Gregg Toland

Gregg Toland was an influential Hollywood cinematographer during the 1930s and '40s. He was nominated for five Oscars, with a win in 1940 for his work on William Wyler's Wuthering Heights.

Toland preferred to take jobs that allowed him to experiment with different styles of photography. Orson Welles encouraged him to be creative during production of Citizen Kane, and the two are widely credited with popularizing the use of deep focus photography, which uses lighting techniques to keep several elements of the frame in focus at the same time.

Toland designed the cameras and lenses used on the film himself, closed the aperture and used very bright light and fast film stock to achieve the effect.

At the time of his death in the late 1940s, Toland was in development of an "ultimate focus" lens, which would make sharp focus and depth of field more manageable on set.

Toland said that working on Citizen Kane was "the most exciting professional adventure of [his] career."

• Note: Many of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• May 29, 1904: Born

• 1926 The Bat: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1929 Bulldog Drummond: IMDb | Rotten Tomaotes

• 1931 Indiscreet: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1932 The Kid from Spain: IMDb | Rotten Tomaotes

• 1935 Splendor: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1938 The Goldwyn Follies: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1939 Wuthering Heights: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1939 They Shall Have Music: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1940 The Grapes of Wrath: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1940 The Long Voyage Home: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1941 Citizen Kane: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Mahalo

• 1946 Song of the South: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1947 The Bishop's Wife: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1948 A Song Is Born: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes