Alex Thomson (cameraman)

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Alex (Alexander) Thomson (born January 12, 1929 in London , † June 14, 2007 in Chertsey ) was a British cameraman . Born in London, England, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography for Excalibur (1981).

life and career

Thomson came to film in 1946 as a camera assistant. In 1962 he became a simple cameraman (so-called camera operator ) and was involved in twelve films between 1961 and 1966 under the head cameraman Nicolas Roeg . Best known from this period are the crime drama Dr. Crippen , the masterful Edgar Allan Poe film adaptation of Satana - The Castle of the Bloody Beast , the Harold Pinter adaptation The caretaker and the much acclaimed science fiction material Fahrenheit 451 by the French François Truffaut .

In 1966 Thomson made his debut as director of photography for the Israeli production Ervinka under Ephraim Kishon's direction . For a long time he was mainly entrusted with smaller productions, but was often replaced prematurely by more complex projects such as the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar - in this case by his famous colleague Douglas Slocombe . During this time Thomson also earned his living as a commercial photographer. In the mid-1970s, Alex Thomson's work was limited to that of a second-unit cameraman (such as The Man Who Wanted To Be King , No Coke For Sherlock Holmes , Superman ). In 1977, after five years of abstinence, he resumed his work as head cameraman, which also took him to Hollywood in the early 1980s.

There, he was soon entrusted with extensive large-scale productions: fantasy materials such as Excalibur , Legende , High Spirits and The Journey into the Labyrinth , science fiction adventures with horror elements such as Leviathan and Alien 3 , action snatchers with Sylvester Stallone ( Cliffhanger - Only the strong survive and Demolition Man ), large-scale Michael Cimino picture sheets ( In the Year of the Dragon and The Sicilian ) but also ambitious literary adaptations ( The Scarlet Letter and Hamlet ).

From 1980 to 1982 he was President of the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the BSC in 2002, the year in which he retired into private life .

Filmography (selection)

Chief cameraman

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 667.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Alex Thomson in the Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers (English)
  2. ↑ Alex Thomson in Encyclopædia Britannica Year in Review 2007, accessed April 28, 2008.
  3. ↑ Quentin Falk: This Shining Light ( Memento from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) in Exposure 13, Fujifilm Motion Picture (PDF, English; 483 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Thomson, Alex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomson, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 2007
Place of death Chertsey , Surrey