# Kramer Morgenthau

Kramer Morgenthau, A.S.C. (born June 6, 1966), is an American cinematographer known for his expertise as a visual storyteller in both television and film. The six-time Emmy nominee was director of photography for television projects such as HBO's Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, and Fahrenheit 451. He is also widely known for his work in films such as Respect, The Many Saints of Newark, Creed II and Thor: The Dark World. He is a member of both the Morgenthau family and the Lehman family.

## Biography

Morgenthau was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father, Henry Morgenthau III, was a producer of documentaries for the flagship PBS station, WGBH-TV, in Boston and his mother, Ruth (née Schachter), was a Polish Jewish refugee from WWII Vienna; was a professor of international politics at Brandeis University; served as an advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter on Africa; and in 1988 ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress in Rhode Island. He has one brother, Henry "Ben" Morgenthau and one sister, Sarah Elinor Morgenthau Wessel.
His great-great-grandfather was businessman Mayer Lehman. His grandfather was Henry Morgenthau Jr., the U.S. Treasury secretary during the Roosevelt administration. His great-grandfather, Henry Morgenthau Sr., was the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I; his uncle is Robert M. Morgenthau, Manhattan district attorney for 35 years.
Morgenthau's early career began in New York as a documentary filmmaker, which led to shooting Oscar-winner Allan Miller's Academy Award-nominated film, Small Wonders as well as Sundance Festival feature film, Joe & Joe, which began his years as a festival fixture, shooting seven more features and documentaries that played there.
Morgenthau is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Cinematographers, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the International Cinematographers Guild.

### Personal life

In 2011, he married Tracy Fleischman in a Jewish ceremony at the former Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in Los Angeles. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and twin children.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1995 | Give a Damn Again | Adam Isidore | With Robert Levi and Maryse Alberti |
| 1995 | Multiple Futures | Alyce Wittenstein | With Richard E. Brooks |
| 1996 | Joe & Joe | David Wall | |
| 1997 | Dogtown | George Hickenlooper | |
| 1997 | Destination Unknown | Nestor Miranda | |
| 1998 | Bombay Boys | Kaizad Gustad | |
| 1998 | Welcome to Hollywood | Tony Markes Adam Rifkin | With Rob Bennett, Nick Mendoz and Howard Wexler |
| 1999 | The Big Brass Ring | George Hickenlooper | |
| 1999 | Wirey Spindell | Eric Schaeffer | |
| 1999 | Pigeonholder | Michael Swanhaus | |
| 1999 | The Woman Chaser | Robinson Devor | |
| 2000 | Cowboys and Angels | Gregory C. Haynes | |
| 2001 | Green Dragon | Timothy Linh Bui | |
| 2001 | The Man from Elysian Fields | George Hickenlooper | |
| 2002 | Empire | Franc. Reyes | |
| 2003 | Dreaming of Julia | Juan Gerard | |
| 2004 | Godsend | Nick Hamm | |
| 2005 | Havoc | Barbara Kopple | |
| 2007 | Full of It | Christian Charles | |
| 2007 | Fracture | Gregory Hoblit | |
| 2007 | Feast of Love | Robert Benton | |
| 2008 | The Express: The Ernie Davis Story | Gary Fleder | |
| 2012 | The Factory | Morgan O'Neill | |
| 2013 | Thor: The Dark World | Alan Taylor | |
| 2014 | Chef | Jon Favreau | |
| 2015 | Terminator Genisys | Alan Taylor | |
| 2017 | Rebel in the Rye | Danny Strong | |
| 2018 | The Darkest Minds | Jennifer Yuh Nelson | |
| 2018 | Creed II | Steven Caple Jr. | |
| 2021 | Waiting for Godot | Scott Elliot | |
| 2021 | Respect | Liesl Tommy | |
| 2021 | The Many Saints of Newark | Alan Taylor | |
| 2022 | Spirited | Sean Anders | |
| 2023 | Creed III | Michael B. Jordan | |
| 2025 | Captain America: Brave New World | Julius Onah | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1998 | Itzhak Perlman: Fiddling for the Future | Allan Miller | TV special |
| 2005 | Blind Justice | Gary Fleder | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2005 | Over There | | Also directed episode "Orphans" |
| 2006 | The Evidence | Gary Fleder | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2006 | Saved | Darnell Martin | Episode "A Day in the Life" |
| 2008 | Life on Mars | Gary Fleder | Episode "Out Here in the Fields" |
| 2009 | FlashForward | David S. Goyer | Episode "No More Good Days" |
| 2010 | Boardwalk Empire | Jeremy Podeswa Tim Van Patten Brian Kirk Simon Cellan Jones | Episodes "Anastasia, "Family Limitation", "Hold Me in Paradise", "The Emerald City" and "A Return to Normalcy" |
| 2011 | The Playboy Club | Alan Taylor | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2012 | Game of Thrones | Alan Taylor | Episodes "The North Remembers" and "The Night Lands" |
| 2012 | Vegas | James Mangold | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2013 | Sleepy Hollow | Len Wiseman | Episode "Pilot" |
| 2017 | The Orville | Jon Favreau | Episode "Pilot" |
TV movies
| Year | Title | Director |
| 1999 | The Caseys | Michael Steinberg |
| 2002 | Untitled Paul Simms pilot | Timothy Van Patten |
| 2004 | The Five People You Meet in Heaven | Lloyd Kramer |
| 2011 | Too Big to Fail | Curtis Hanson |
| 2018 | Fahrenheit 451 | Ramin Bahrani |
| 2019 | American Son | Kenny Leon |

### Documentary works

Film
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1995 | Synthetic Pleasures | Iara Lee | With Marcus Hahn Toshifumi Furusawa |
| 1995 | Small Wonders | Allan Miller | |
| 1995 | Varga Girl | Wolfgang Hastert | |
| 1999 | Music Bridges Over Troubled Waters | Marc Cadieux | |
| 2003 | Mayor of the Sunset Strip | George Hickenlooper | With Igor Meglic |
| 2004 | Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family | Susan Kaplan | With Sarah Cawley, Samuel M. Henriques and Don Lenzer |
| 2004 | A Different Kind of Blue | Murray Lerner | |
Short film
| Year | Title | Director |
| 1997 | Monte Hellman: American Auteur | George Hickenlooper |
| 1997 | The Big Brass Ring | George Hickenlooper |
TV series
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1990 | Real Sex | | |
| 1999 | American Masters | Joshua Waletsky | Episode "Dashiel Hammett" |
TV movies
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1998 | Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof | David M. Thompson | |
| 1998 | The Art of Influence | Deborah Dickson Roberto Guerra | With Russell Lee Fine, Wolfgang Held and Frédéric Labourasse |
| 2002 | Shirtless: Hollywood's Sexiest Men | Elizabeth Meeker | |
| 2004 | The Seinfeld Story | Morgan Sackett | |