Cinematographer John Toll has the distinction of winning back-to-back Oscars® for Best Cinematography. He won his first in 1995 for Edward Zwick's romantic drama Legends of the Fall and his second in 1996 for his work on Mel Gibson's epic Braveheart (which also won Best Picture).

In 1998, Mr. Toll received an Academy Award nomination for his cinematography on Terrence Malick¹s World War II drama, The Thin Red Line, which also brought him awards from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and three of the most important film critics' groups: the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Recently John Toll collaborated on two films starring Tom Cruise -- Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai, which is scheduled for release in December, and Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, released in 2001. Other recent films include John Madden's Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous in 2000. In the 1990s, Mr. Toll's work as a director of photography included Francis Ford Coppola's films The Rainmaker and Jack, and Matthew Warchus's Simpatico.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, John Toll moved to Los Angeles when he was 19 and enrolled in college. While there, he got a job as a part-time production assistant with David Wolper Productions and began working as an assistant cameraman on documentaries. After graduation, he worked on low-budget features and documentaries. This eventually led to opportunities that enabled him to work as a camera operator with many noted filmmakers, including Martin Ritt on Norma Rae, Karel Reisz on Sweet Dreams, Francis Ford Coppola on Peggy Sue Got Married, and Robert Redford on The Milagro Beanfield War. He moved up to second unit photography on Tequila Sunrise, Blaze, and Steven Spielberg's Always and landed his first job as director of photography on Wind with director Carroll Ballard.

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