John Alton (October 5, 1901 – June 2, 1996), born Johann Jacob Altmann, in Sopron, Kingdom of Hungary, was an American cinematographer of Hungarian-German origin.

Alton moved to the US to attend college and first became involved in the film industry when he was spotted by a gateman at Cosmopolitan Studios in New York looking for extras.

He moved to France with Ernst Lubitsch to film backgrounds for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and ended up staying for one year heading the camera department of Paramount Pictures's Joinville Studios.

He worked with Vincente Minnelli at MGM for 10 years including on Father of the Bride (1950) and An American in Paris (1951), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography with Alfred Gilks.

He was reinstated at his request less than a year later, with the help of Leon Shamroy,[4] but ended up resigning a second and final time in March 1954 after a personal dispute with the president.

He worked with director Charles Crichton on Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) but both were fired after two weeks and Alton quit the industry.