Lucien Andriot

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Vocation

French-American cinematographer who shot more than 200 films and television programs over the course of his career. Andriot began his career in France in 1909 working for Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset. His elder sister Josette Andriot was a French film actress, working for Jasset. He then came to the U.S. some time before 1914 as an employee of the Éclair American Company based in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The outbreak of World War I drove a re-organization of foreign film-industry assets in Fort Lee, including the employees. Now working for the World Film Company, financed by Lewis J. Selznick and run by William A. Brady, Andriot became a member of a separate French-speaking unit within World Film. For about three years Maurice Tourneur, George Archainbaud, Emile Chautard, Albert Capellani worked together on films such as the 1915 version of Camille, and taught a young apprentice at the World studio: Josef von Sternberg. Andriot moved to Hollywood around 1920 and went to work for Fox. He did show a long-standing affinity for French directors working in Hollywood, initially Maurice Tourneur, and later René Clair, Robert Florey, and Jean Renoir. In the 1930s and 1940s Andriot worked principally on B pictures for major studios. He did some television work in the 1950s and early 1960s, and retired to Palm Springs, California. Andriot died on 19 March 1979, aged 86, in Riverside, California. Link to Wikipedia biography