Arthur Crabtree

Arthur Crabtree (29 October 1900 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England – 15 March 1975 in Worthing, Sussex, England) was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough melodramas.

He married Marguerite Vanière, whom he met as one of the dancers in the chorus line of Evergreen (1934), and with whom he had three children, Richard (b. 1938), Robert (b. 1948) and Loretta (b. 1953). Their parents told them that they could take up any career but the theatre, because of the uncertainty of that profession. Robert taught for more than 40 years at Yale where he developed what came to be known as Crabtree's catalyst.