George Hurrell

George Edward Hurrell (June 1, 1904 – May 17, 1992) was a photographer who contributed to the image of glamour presented by Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s.

Born in the Walnut Hills district of Cincinnati, Ohio, Hurrell originally studied as a painter with no particular interest in photography.

[2] In the late 1920s, Hurrell was introduced to the actor Ramon Novarro, by Pancho Barnes, and agreed to take a series of photographs of him.

Among the performers regularly photographed by him during these years were silent screen star Dorothy Jordan, as well as Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, Jean Harlow, Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, Marion Davies, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupe Vélez, Anna May Wong, Carole Lombard and Norma Shearer, who was said to have refused to allow herself to be photographed by anyone else.

[2] In the early 1940s Hurrell moved to Warner Brothers Studios photographing, among others Bette Davis, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, Alexis Smith, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.

He shot the cover photos for Cass Elliot's self-titled album (1972), Helen Reddy's Imagination (1983), Tom Waits' Foreign Affairs (1977), Fleetwood Mac's Mirage (1982), Queen's The Works (1984), Midge Ure's The Gift (1985) and Paul McCartney's Press to Play (1986).

Jane Russell (pictured in 1943) by Hurrell, in a publicity image for The Outlaw
Olivia de Havilland by George Hurrell, 1938