Michael Ballhaus, German cinematographer, Died at 81

  Media

Michael Ballhaus was born on August 5, 1935, in Berlin, Germany, and died on April 12, 2017.

He was a German cinematographer.

Ballhaus was the Head of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, in 1990.

Michael is the son of actors Lena Hutter and Oskar Ballhaus.

He was influenced by family friend Max Ophüls, and appears as an extra in Ophüls last film Lola Montès (1955).

He has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, for Broadcast News (1987), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), and Gangs of New York (2002), but never won.

From 1958 Helga Ballhaus (née Betten), Balhaus’has been his wife, appeared in a handful of films, including several directed by Fassbinder; she died in 2006.

They had a son called Florian, who is also a cinematographer who worked on Flightplan and The Devil Wears Prada.

During the year 2011, he married German-American film director Sherry Hormann known for Desert Flower.

Michael Ballhaus passed away at 81 years old.