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Henry Cronjager was one of the founders of a nearly century-long dynasty on the technical side of American cinema, in tandem with his older brother, Jules Cronjager. Beginning almost before there was an American film industry, and long before there was a Hollywood, they were among the movies' earliest important cinematographers. The Cronjager family came from Germany, and both brothers displayed talent in the relatively new field of photography as they grew up in the final three decades of the 19th century. The Cronjagers came to America, and it was there that both were able to translate their talents to the still newer field of motion pictures. Henry entered the movie business in the middle of the first decade of the new century and went on to become one of the busiest and most highly regarded lighting cameramen of the silent era, with an enviable list of credits that included such enduringly popular films of the period as the melodrama Tol'able David (1921) and the Mary Pickford vehicles Daddy Long Legs (1919) and The Love Light (1921). Henry Cronjager retired during the early '30s, receiving his last feature-film screen credit for Ace of Aces (1933). His sons, Henry Cronjager Jr. (1906-1991) and Edward Cronjager (1904-1960), and his grandson William Cronjager (1930-1995) carried on the family name behind the camera in the ensuing decades, Edward becoming a multiple Academy Award nominee at Fox in the 1940s and '50s, while William was a top cinematographer in television during the 1970s and '80s.