Ronnie Taylor

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Ronald "Ronnie" Taylor (born October 27, 1924 in Hampstead , London , † August 3, 2018 in Ibiza ) was a British cameraman .

Life

Taylor began working in the film studios of Gainsborough Pictures in Islington in 1941 at the age of 16 . Until Gainsborough closed in 1951, he worked there in the Camera Department , first as assistant to the camera assistant, then as camera assistant and finally, from 1949, as camera operator . He held this position until the end of the 1970s. In the 1950s he was an operator for cameramen such as Harry Waxman and Wilkie Cooper , and from 1957 for Freddie Francis . Together with Francis, he was responsible for the visual side of important British New Wave films, such as Jack Clayton's The Way Up (1959) and Castle of Terror (1961) and Karel Reisz 's Saturday Night to Sunday Morning (1960). After Freddie Francis left directing, Taylor worked in the 1960s and 1970s as an operator for British cinematographers such as Geoffrey Unsworth , Gerry Turpin , Arthur Ibbetson , Douglas Slocombe , David Watkin , Dick Bush , John Alcott , Gilbert Taylor , Robert Paynter and John Coquillon .

Taylor first worked as Director of Photography for Ken Russell's musical film Tommy in 1975 , after the original cinematographer Dick Bush left the project during filming. For director Richard Attenborough , with whom he had already worked as an operator for Gerry Turpin on his first two films, he replaced the cameraman Billy Williams, who was injured due to injury, while filming in India in Gandhi (1982) . For this film, both cameramen received a BAFTA nomination in 1982 , the BSC Best Cinematography Award and in 1983 the Oscar for best camera . Taylor later worked on two other Attenborough films, A Chorus Line (1985) and Freedom Cry (1987). The latter earned him another BAFTA nomination in 1987.

With Terror in the Opera , Taylor began working with the Italian horror film director Dario Argento in 1987 . From 1990 to 1995 Taylor only worked as a cameraman on a few television productions. From 1990 to 1992 he was the President of the British Society of Cinematographers . His only work since 1995 has been two other Argento films, most recently in 2001 Sleepless , Argento's return to the no- frills Gialli of the 1970s.

Taylor had been married to Mary Devetta since 1951 and had two daughters born in 1959 and 1961. He died in 2018 of complications from a stroke .

Filmography

Individual evidence

  1. https://bscine.com/media/uploads/awards/bsc-cinematography-theatrical-release.pdf

Web links