Entering films in 1923 as an assistant cameraman, Burnett Guffey was
picked by
John Ford to handle second-unit photography on
The Iron Horse (1924). After
that film, however, Guffey returned to his assistant cameraman
position, a job he held until 1928, when he became a camera operator.
In that capacity he photographed such major productions as Ford's
The Informer (1935),
Alfred Hitchcock's
Foreign Correspondent (1940) and
Charles Vidor's
Cover Girl (1944), among others. Guffey
was finally hired as a director of photography by Columbia. Highly
regarded by his colleagues for his crisp imaging and superb
compositions, Guffey won two Academy Awards, for
From Here to Eternity (1953) and
Bonnie and Clyde (1967).