George Schnéevoigt
cinematographer, director, writer
- Birth name:
- Fritz Ernst George Fischer
- Born:
- 1893-12-23, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Died:
- 1961-02-06, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Professions:
- cinematographer, director, writer
Biography
December frost clung to Copenhagen when George Schnéevoigt drew his first breath on 23 December 1893; by the time the city’s winter claimed him again on 6 February 1961, he had spent a lifetime coaxing Nordic light onto flickering strips of film. Behind the camera he frosted the frame for the Arctic epic Eskimo (1930); earlier, as a teenage lensman, he tracked the mischievous wanderings of Kleiner Svend und seine Mutter (1913) and later plunged audiences into the submarine intrigue of Dykkerklokkens hemmelighed (1918). Between these milestones he stepped into the director’s chair, guiding stories with the same steady eye he once used to compose shots. Two marriages—first to Tilly von Kaulbach, later to Elisabeth Schnéevoigt—bookended a life spent chasing images through the long Scandinavian twilight.
