Conrad Lafcadio Hall earned a reputation as one of the greatest cinematographers in American film history, shooting with an instinctive eye for shadow and natural light that gave his work an immediacy few peers could match. Born on June 21, 1926, in Papeete, Tahiti, to the writer James Norman Hall, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty, and a Tahitian mother, he was named after writers Joseph Conrad and Lafcadio Hearn. He moved to the United States as a young man and studied filmmaking at USC, where his classmates included future directors who would later hire him for their projects. His breakthrough came with In Cold Blood in 1967, Truman Capote's true-crime story filmed in stark black and white that made audiences feel like they were watching a documentary of real horror. The film's unflinching visual style influenced an entire generation of crime cinema. He won his first Academy Award for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, a film whose sun-drenched visuals defined a new cinematic romanticism. The bicycle scene between Paul Newman and Katharine Ross, shot in soft golden light with Burt Bacharach's music underneath, became one of the most imitated sequences in American film. After a long period away from major Hollywood productions during which he worked in television and smaller films, he returned to prominence in the 1990s with American Beauty, which earned him a second Oscar. His final film was Road to Perdition in 2002, which earned a third. He shot Road to Perdition while battling terminal bladder cancer, completing the film through sheer determination. The rain-soaked final sequence, where Tom Hanks's character walks through sheets of water toward his fate, is considered one of the most visually stunning achievements in modern cinema. He died on January 4, 2003, at age 76, just months before the film's awards season recognition. His son Conrad W. Hall has continued working as a cinematographer, but the elder Hall's legacy remains singular in the craft.