Career
Burks began his career as a special effects technician in the late 1930s before becoming a director of photography in the mid-1940s. His first cr in this field was Jammin" the Blues (1944), a short film featuring leading jazz musicians of the day. Burks collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on twelve of the director"s films.
Beginning with Strangers on a Train in 1951 (which secured him an Oscar nomination) through Marnie in 1964, he shot every Hitchcock film except Psycho in 1960.
Additional credits include The Fountainhead, Beyond the Forest, The Glass Menagerie, The Spirit of Saint Louis, The Music Manitoba, and A Patch of Blue.