Ernest B. Schoedsack
The filmmaker who guided the camera through the shadows of Skull Island.
Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack (June 8, 1893 – December 23, 1979) was an American motion picture cinematographer, producer, and director. He is best known for co-directing the 1933 film King Kong with Merian C. Cooper. Schoedsack focused on scenes with human actors while Cooper headed the special effects. The script was co-written by Schoedsack's wife, Ruth Rose. Schoedsack, Cooper, and Rose inspired the characters of John Driscoll, Carl Denham, and Ann Darrow, respectively.
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack
- Born
- June 8, 1893
- Birthplace
- Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S.
- Died
- 23 December 1979
- Place of death
- Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
- Occupation
- Film producer
- cinematographer
- film director
- Years active
- 1914–1952
Lore & Background
Schoedsack first met Merian C. Cooper in 1918 in Vienna. Their first collaboration was on Grass in 1925. In 1927, they produced Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, spending 18 months in the Northern Siamese jungle. While filming, stampeding elephants almost ran over Schoedsack and his crew. Chang was later nominated for Best Picture at the first Academy Awards show. In 1929, the duo worked on The Four Feathers, their first fiction film together and one of the last silent films of Hollywood. After finishing production on The Most Dangerous Game, Schoedsack joined Cooper in the production of King Kong. This film marked a transition: after it, Schoedsack only directed films, while Cooper produced them. Their partnership ended in the late 1930s.
Reader's Guide
Ernest B.
Did You Know?
- Schoedsack was 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall, and his friends called him 'Shorty'.
- He ran away from home at age fourteen and worked with road gangs.
- His eyesight was severely damaged in World War I, yet he continued to work in films afterward.
- Schoedsack kept a print of a Bengal tiger pouncing with its jaws open in his office; when asked, he said the tiger had sprung and he shot it.
- Ruth Rose died on Schoedsack's birthday, June 8, 1978.
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