Michael Ballhaus

Ballhaus was born on 5 August 1935 in Berlin, to actors Lena Hutter and Oskar Ballhaus. His uncle was actor and director Carl Ballhaus. He was influenced by family friend Max Ophüls, and appeared as an extra in Ophüls' last film Lola Montès (1955).

Ballhaus 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. After settling in the United States, he worked on many American films, such as Goodfellas (1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Wild Wild West (1999) and Gangs of New York (2002). Ballhaus also made an appearance in Rosa von Praunheim's film Fassbinder's Women (2000). He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, but never won. He did win awards at the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, and twice at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. 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. In 1993, Ballhaus joined the Academy of Arts, Berlin. He was also a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg, and was a co-founding member of the Deutsche Filmakademie in 2003.

Ballhaus was married to actress and art director Helga Maria Betten from 1958 until her death in 2006. They had two sons, Florian, who is also a cinematographer, and Jan Sebastian, an assistant director. In 2011, Ballhaus married German-American director Sherry Hormann.

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

Cinematographer

Cinematographer Director

Cinematographer Executive producer The Thirteenth Floor (1999) Associate producer Remembrance (2011)

Cinematographer Producer Last Night (2004)