Robert Gottschalk was an American camera technician, inventor, and co-founder of Panavision.
14 Facts About Robert Gottschalk
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Robert Gottschalk's father was an architect who built several hotels in the city.
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In 1939, Robert Gottschalk graduated with a degree in theater and arts from Carleton College in Minnesota.
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Robert Gottschalk then moved to California to open a camera shop with a long-term goal of becoming a filmmaker.
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Robert Gottschalk bought an interest in a camera shop in Westwood area of Los Angeles where he would later hire Richard Moore as a clerk.
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In 1951, at the request of the US Aqua-Lung distributor, Robert Gottschalk began working on developing an underwater camera.
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Robert Gottschalk teamed up with several colleagues and began offering projection lenses under the name Panavision, which used prismatic rather than cylindrical optics.
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Robert Gottschalk's first was a Special Technical Oscar, awarded in 1960, for the development of the MGM Camera 65 wide-screen photographic system.
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Robert Gottschalk shared the Oscar with MGM executive Douglas Shearer and Panavision co-founder Richard Moore.
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Robert Gottschalk received an Academy Award of Merit in 1978 for developing the Panaflex camera.
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The first was bestowed at the 31st Academy Awards, for the development of the Auto Panatar anamorphic lens, with Robert Gottschalk accepting on behalf of the company.
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From 1977 to his death, Robert Gottschalk received 14 patents for his lenses and other camera equipment, including body-mounted support apparatuses, vibration dampeners, and camera harnesses.
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Police would find Robert Gottschalk's badly beaten body sprawled out in the master bedroom of his Bel-Air mansion.
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Robert Gottschalk was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.