Background
Byron Haskin was born on 22 April 1899 in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Byron Haskin was born on 22 April 1899 in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Haskin (or Haskins, as he was often known) was a photographer from 1922, and Bobbed Hair (25, Alan Crosland), On Thin Ice (25, Malcolm St. Clair), and Across the Pacific (26, Roy del Ruth) led to his participation on the earliest exercise in sound, Don Inan (26, Crosland). He is credited with some ol the detailed engineering that made filming with sound less cumbersome and, after When a Man Loves (27, Crosland) and Wolf’s Clothing (27, del Ruth), he worked briefly as a director himself. But for the next twenty years he concentrated on photography. Only in 1947 did he resume as a director.
His films are cheerful adventures with a special enthusiasm for space fiction, often in George Pal productions. Invariably, they center on ingenious special effects photography, and the roar of Robert Newtons Long John Silver (in two films) is one of Haskins few human achievements. With Pal, Haskin made several engaging movies: The War of the Worlds, The Conquest of Space, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and, not least. The Naked Jungle, which has Charlton Heston troubled by a mail-order marriage with Eleanor Parker and an unexpected invasion of ants.