From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert Burks, A.S.C. (July 4, 1909 – May 11, 1968) was an American cinematographer known for being proficient in virtually every genre and equally at home with black-and-white or color. Burks began his career as a special effects technician in the late 1930s before becoming a director of photography in the mid-1940s. His first credit in this field was Jammin' the Blues (1944), a short film featuring leading jazz musicians of the day. Burks collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on twelve of the director's films. Beginning with Strangers on a Train in 1951 (which secured him an Oscar nomination) through Marnie in 1964, he shot every Hitchcock film except Psycho in 1960. Additional credits include The Fountainhead, Beyond the Forest, The Glass Menagerie, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Music Man, and A Patch of Blue. Burks and his wife died in a house fire in 1968 in Huntington Harbor, California.