Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack[1] (June 8, 1893 – December 23, 1979) was an American motion picture cinematographer, producer, and director.

He worked on several films with Merian C. Cooper including King Kong, Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, and The Most Dangerous Game.

[7] Schoedsack began his career thanks to his brother Felix that helped him get a job as a cameraman in films in 1914 for Mack Sennett.

After training at the Columbia University School of Military Cinematography, he was hired by The New York Times as a cameraman on an expedition around the world.

[10] They met on an expedition to the Galapagos Islands, where Schoedsack was the cameraman, and Rose was the official historian.

[6] In 1927, Cooper and Schoedsack produced the film Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness together, which depicts a man's survival in the Northern Siamese jungle.

Schoedsack and Cooper spent 18 months in the jungle in order to produce the film and photograph certain scenes.

Schoedsack, Cooper, and Rose inspired the characters of John Driscoll, Carl Denham, and Ann Darrow, respectively.

[6] Schoedsack directed several other films in the 1930s including The Last Days of Pompeii, Trouble in Morocco, and Outlaws of the Orient.

It was a reunion film of the main King Kong creative team of Cooper, Schoedsack, and Ruth Rose.

This would be the last film that Schoedsack would direct due to eye injuries received in World War II from testing photography equipment.