Born in Miami, OK. Highly distinguished and versatile cinematographer of several black-and-white classics who began his career as an editor and assistant cameraman with Paramount. After working as secondary photographer of both MOROCCO (1930) and THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935), Ballard was moved to the front ranks for the third of his four collaborations with Josef von Sternberg, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (1935). He then worked on numerous second-echelon Columbia films during the late 1930s and early 40s. Ballard came into his own as an acclaimed black-and-white cinematographer with Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING (1956) and as a specialist in lush, outdoor color for the action and Western films of Henry Hathaway, Sam Peckinpah and Budd Boetticher with whom he worked multiple times. He also shot several films starring Merle Oberon, to whom he was married from 1945 to 1949. He was killed in a road accident in Rancho Mirage, CA. He worked as cinematographer (credited and uncredited) on 125 films.  Nominated for Cinematography (Black & White) 1963: THE CARETAKERS 1 nomination