Born Joseph Bailey Walker in Denver, Colorado, Walker worked as a wireless telephone engineer, inventor, and photographer of documentaries for the Red Cross during World War I[1] before starting his feature film career in 1919 with the Canadian film Back to God's Country, which was filmed near the Arctic Circle.
[1] Walker collaborated with director Frank Capra on 20 films, including Ladies of Leisure (1930), Lady for a Day (1933), The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), It Happened One Night (1934), Lost Horizon (1937), Mr.
Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
In addition to his film work, Walker held 20 patents on various camera-related inventions he devised,[2] including the Double Exposure System, several zoom lenses, the Duomar Lens for both motion picture and television cameras, the Variable Diffusion Device, the Facial Make-Up Meter, lightweight camera blimps, and optical diffusion techniques.
He was the first recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, presented to him in recognition of his technological contributions to the film industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1982.