Ira H. Morgan
American cinematographer (1889–1959)
Ira Harry Morgan (2 April 1889 – 10 April 1959) was an American cinematographer. He successfully transitioned from silent movies to sound films.
Early years
Morgan broke in as a cameraman with Gaumont News, a pioneer of newsreels. Later he was behind the camera for Essanay, where the Broncho Billy western series was filmed at Niles Canyon, Alameda County in California. After Essanay discontinued production in 1918, Morgan joined director King Vidor.
Career
During his long career, Morgan worked extensively for major studios such as Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as well as independent producers. Notably, he worked with former Essanay colleague Roland Totheroh on Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936). Other credits included George W. Hill's Tell It to the Marines (1926) with Lon Chaney, James Cruze's Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932) with Lee Tracy, Michael Curtiz's Jimmy the Gent (1934) with James Cagney, Frank Buck's Tiger Fangs (1943), Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More (1944), Jungle Jim (1948), The Lost Tribe (1949), Chain Gang (1950), and Revenue Agent (1950).
In 1944 Morgan was working for Monogram Pictures. His creative photography for the East Side Kids comedy Bowery Champs was noticed by the film's producer, Sam Katzman.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3154247. VIAF identifies the subject as 13381366. The Library of Congress control number is no90026918. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1959, 1918 and 1936.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ira H. Morgan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.