Haller was a veteran Hollywood cinematographer with some 180 films on his credit. He first ventured into Hollywood in 1914 as an actor, then became a director of photography by the 1920s. In the sound era he worked on many celebrated classic movies, including Captain Blood (1935, featuring Leonard Mudie), Jezebel (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939, featuring Phyllis Douglas), The Roaring Twenties (1939), Dark Victory (1939, featuring Leonard Mudie), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939, featuring Gil Perkins), Mildred Pierce (1945), Rebel Without a Cause (1955, featuring Corey Allen, Ian Wolfe and Chuck Hicks and music by Leonard Rosenman), Hell on Devil's Island (1957, featuring Roy Jenson), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Lilies of the Field (1963, featuring Stanley Adams and music