Richard H. Kline

Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 15, 1926, Kline, with the help of his dad, landed a job in the camera department at Columbia Pictures after he graduated from high school in 1943. He worked as a slate boy on Cover Girl (1944), starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. Richard is the fourth member of my family to be a part of the ASC. His father was cinematographer Benjamin H. Kline (Danger Street, Fireside Theatre, dozens of Westerns), and his uncles were, Phil Rosen, co-founded the American Society of Cinematographers in 1919 and served as its first president, and Sol Halperin who also served as president. Kline assisted and operated on more than 200 motion pictures before becoming a director of photography in 1963, after which he compiled 46 feature credits. He is a product of the Hollywood studio-system heyday of the 1940s, '50s and '60s, an invaluable link to a time when filmmakers could focus almost exclusively on practicing their craft and improving with each picture. He enlisted in the