Bruno Bernard (1912-1987) was born Bruno Bernard Sommerfeld (or Sommer) in Berlin, Germany. He became interested in photography when his parents gave him his first camera at age 11. He worked as a photographer and reporter as a young man and earned a Ph.D. in criminal psychology at the Kiel University in 1934. His activism in a Jewish youth organization landed him on the Gestapo’s blacklist and caused him to emigrate to the United States in 1937. He settled in Los Angeles and set up his first photo studio in the basement of his apartment in 1938, then moved to a new studio on the Sunset Strip in 1940. Over the next two years, Bernard opened studios at the Palm Springs Racquet Club, Laguna Beach, and Las Vegas’s Riviera Hotel. He photographed most of the big stars of Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Elizabeth Taylor. One of his most famous photos was of Marilyn Monroe holding her skirt down from an underground gust of wind in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955). It has been said that he introduced Monroe to agent Johnny Hyde, who landed her a contract with 20th Century-Fox. In 1961 he sold his studios and started a new career as a foreign correspondent and photojournalist in Europe. He produced many cover photos of international celebrities for magazines all over the world. In 1984 Bernard was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an exhibition of more than 120 of his photographs.