Byron Haskin was born Byron Conrad Haskin in Portland, Oregon in 1899. His family relocated to San Francisco when he was a child and he attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied art. He served as a Naval Aviation cadet during World War I, then briefly applied his art education to advertising jobs and a position as a cartoonist for the “San Francisco Daily News.” He moved to Hollywood circa 1918 and apprenticed under cinematographer H. Lyman Broening. His first practical experience came as a cameraman for International Newsreel and Pathé News.

Haskin began photographing narrative features circa 1922 and he signed a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. in 1925. He shot close to 30 films for the studio, including THE SEA BEAST (1926), DON JUAN (1926), THE SINGING FOOL (1928), and BLACK FURY (1935). During this time, he also branched out into directing and special effects work. In 1927 alone he directed four films, MATINEE LADIES, IRISH HEARTS, GINSBERG THE GREAT, and THE SIREN, though he would not direct again until the 1940s. He then moved to England for three years to serve as a production executive to Herbert Wilcox, primarily for films directed by Tom Walls. By circa 1931 he had returned to Hollywood and Warner Bros., where he was responsible for special photographic effects on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1935), leading to his being appointed head of the Warner Bros. Special Effects Department in 1937. The following year he and his department received a Class III Scientific or Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for “pioneering the development and for the first practical application to motion picture production of the triple head background projector.” Additionally, Haskin was nominated for an Academy Award for Special Effects four times, shared with Nathan Levinson, for THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX (1939), THE SEA HAWK (1940), THE SEA WOLF (1941), and DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942). His other notable special effects credits include DODGE CITY (1939), THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939), THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940), HIGH SIERRA (1941), and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944).

Haskin continued to run the Special Effects Department at Warner Bros. until 1945, at which point he moved to Paramount and revived his directing career. His initial efforts were eclectic and included noirs such as I WALK ALONE (1948) and TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949), Walt Disney’s live-action TREASURE ISLAND (1950), TARZAN’S PERIL (1951), and Westerns like SILVER CITY (1951) and DENVER AND RIO GRANDE (1952). In 1953 he directed WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) for producer George Pal, and he continued his association with Pal on THE NAKED JUNGLE (1954), CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955), and THE POWER (1968), Haskin’s last feature length directing credit. His other films were largely in the science fiction and adventure genres, including FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (1958), CAPTAIN SINBAD (1963), and ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS (1964). He also ventured into television, most notably as an associate producer on the pilot episode of STAR TREK and as a director of six episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS. Haskin retired in 1968 and died in 1984.