Obituaries
All members have received details of the following deaths and subsequent funeral arrangements. Obituaries have been written for each very special person and will, at some stage in the near future be loaded onto the website. Until then, for those of us who knew these men, there are no words to describe how sad we feel that they are no longer around. |
| 2009 |
| ALAN IMESON, GBCT – GRIP (Died July 2009) |
Buried in Colwyn Bay on Monday 3rd August 2009. A very experienced Grip, Alan worked on numerous prestigious television drama series including several Ruth Rendell Mysteries, “Little Lord Fauntleroy” and “An Unsuitable Job For A Woman”. So many of the people he worked with and counted as friends have said that they will miss him enormously. |
Barry Read of Grip Unit wrote: Alan was a real gentleman who taught me a lot about being a Grip. I always aspired to one day be as good as he was. He was also a pioneer with new technology being the first grip to buy a Tulip crane and Panther dolly. The industry has lost a real Master in the art of gripping. My thoughts are with his wife and family. |
| TERRY CHAPMAN, GBCT – GRIP (Died 27 June 2009) |
Terry suffered a massive heart attack and did not recover. When I heard, I alerted the Grips Grapevine to the terribly sad news. It was a shock for me to get – I thought Terry would go on forever. To me, Terry Chapman was one of those special human beings you either loved or hated. Well, I loved him. He made me laugh so much and because of that, he got away with murder! Apart from that, whenever we worked together over the years, I was also struck by how good at his job he actually was. The last time I saw him he was going on about a clay pigeon shooting gun that he simply had to have and that if he’d got all those brown envelopes he’d so generously let me off giving him, he could have bought two of them!!! I will miss seeing him and having him try to wind me up. |
| JACK CARDIFF, OBE, BSC and GBCT – DIRECTOR & DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY (Died 22 April 2009) |
Sad news. Jack Cardiff has died. He had an incredible life during his 95 years and died very peacefully early this morning at his home, surrounded by his family. A legend as a Cinematographer, Jack’s life and work was well documented and one of his many fans – Marilyn Monroe – said that no one could light her like he did. A very special obit exists on the BSC website (www.bscine.com) if anyone would like to read it. |
| CHRIS HARTLEY, GBCT – DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY (Died 5 March 2009) |
Chris Hartley worked his way up through the ranks and operated for DoP’s such as John Daly, BSC and Paul Wheeler, BSC. His talent was such that he moved fluidly between drama and documentary. In fact, the last series he shot – “Darwin’s Garden” had its first programme transmitted two days after he had died. Chris had been ill for some time but was beginning to feel better and stronger. His family thinks that he must have been very tired and just wanted to sleep for a long while …. Chris was greatly loved and will be sorely missed as a loving father and partner and as a very talented human being. |
| 2008 |
| ROY FORD JOHN LEE DAVID WATKIN DON HARRIS GEOFF HERMGES PAT NEWMAN LES OSTINELLI |
| Roy Ford, A Remembrance – by Mike Fox, GBCT, Associate BSC Read by Lance Ford at his father’s funeral – 29th Dec. 2008 |
I first met Roy Ford in the canteen at Pinewood Studios when we were both working as “clapper-boys" on a film called Sink the Bismarck. He on the first unit with all the stars – led by Kenneth More, the UK’s biggest then – and me on the model-unit, wading through the huge exterior water-tank that the studio had built especially for it. As 1959 gifted us a glorious summer, we laughed that I came out the winner. On our first meeting, I even remember what Roy was wearing that day – be aware that Pinewood then was a film factory and any kind of style among junior studio employees was frowned upon – but Roy was a rare sight in the studio, a “freelancer" and a very flamboyant one at that. He was dressed in a beautifully tailored antelope suede jacket and cavalry twill trousers. He was blond and extremely good-looking (please believe me, I’m not gay) and he had that beautiful soft-spoken cultured voice, which always reminded me of a young Lawrence Olivier – he even looked like him a little bit, too. It would have been easy to hate Roy for having all those qualities whenever one caught sight of oneself in a mirror – but not a bit of it. For some reason Roy and I clicked on that very first day, when we were both in our early twenties, in a friendship that was going to last for forty-nine years! Whenever I’ve tried to analyze it, I can only conclude that Roy and I were uncannily similar in our views on life, our work, and the people that were in them – and we both went on to marry oriental girls. He, like me, detested pomposity and self-importance, playing it safe and keeping one’s own counsel at the expense of one’s talent. If you asked him for an opinion, you got one. If he liked you, he’d look after you. If he didn’t he wouldn’t give you the time of day. And Roy had talent to spare. Looking at his professional record, it’s easy to pigeon-hole him on the topmost shelf. Just look at the people he worked with, who asked him to grace the camera crew on their films: directors Mel Shavelson, Sidney Furie, Mike Newell, Mike Hodges, and Roman Polanski; filmmakers of the first water. And the actors and directors – enough lords-a-leaping and knights to make a day: Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir David Lean, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Sean Connery, Lords Olivier and Attenborough. There were others: Widmark, Brando, Lollobrigida, Hackman, even George Lazenby. If I had to choose the greatest camera operator the British film industry ever produced, I would have to name Ernest Day, if only for the magnificent pictures to which he was able to apply his craft: Exodus, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, et al. And when Ernie moved up to director of photography, he chose Roy to operate for him whenever he could. Likewise, Frederick Young – our only three-time academy award winner for cinematography – chose Roy, too. And when you are chosen by such masters of their craft there can be no dispute about your own talent. More to the point, whenever I had to choose an operator for a second-camera or second-unit or to fill-in for me, it would be Roy. And I was always enormously flattered when he always chose me. We both flourished through the Sixties and Seventies, the Golden Age of films – but later the industry changed course. Producers wanted to work without us. Many DoPs began taking our jobs and we camera operators found it harder and harder not only to get work on the kinds of films we were used to – the best – but any kinds of films. Thus, our day-to-day contacts with our friends became fewer and fewer; the phone calls and parties further and further apart… I am sad to say that I hadn’t seen Roy for probably five or six years. But whenever I wrote an article in our trade magazines on some of the issues facing us in the industry, Roy never failed to call me and tell me how good it was – how funny, how sad, how telling. Anything to make me feel good and he always succeeded. More than anything I respected Roy not only as an operator, but as a treasured friend. He was, above all, an extremely private person and 3 always his own man. I remember him for his truly unique sense of humour and singular ways. If it got too quiet on set, he would affect an extraordinarily loud sneeze. Those who didn’t know him would stare at him as if he was some kind of nut. But he simply faced them out. Once, a famous very beautiful actress was playing an extremely moving scene. Roy, standing just a few feet from her, surreptitiously wet his eyes and as the director called "cut", Roy, holding a handkerchief to his face, let out a little sob. The actress rushed to him, showering him in kisses and cuddles, consoling him, and Roy, as only he could, carried it off with aplomb. Another time, checking into the Athens Hilton, he found what he must have thought was a pretentious fountain and goldfish pond between himself and the check-in desk. He simply walked across it, up to his calves in water, and nonchalantly reached for a pen in front of the astonished staff. These stories are legend. You’d be in a crowd – in a pub, at a party, an event somewhere – and Roy would stand with all of us, yakking away with anecdotes, sending up one, tearing down another. And suddenly there would be a hole in the company. Somebody would say, “Where’s Roy?” And another, mystified, would answer, “I dunno. He was here a minute ago…” And that’s how Roy took his leave, a Will-o‟-the-Wisp, never saying goodbye. But now, along with my deepest condolences to Mai-Ling, and his sons, Lance and Shaun, these words must stand for the dozens of goodbyes that Roy never allowed me to say. “Goodbye, dear old friend. A part of me goes with you and I have but one regret: I knew you well, but I wish I’d known you more.” |
Frank Gell Director of Photography, deceased 6th July, 2008. Over the years I’ve read many tributes to friends and colleagues, many of whom I’d known and worked with. Now it’s my turn to write and I realise how hard it is to convey in words the loss of a dear friend. I met Frank more years ago than I care to remember when we were both very green loaders, me being greener than Frank and we immediately became friends and remained so from then on. Frank soon went on to pulling focus and we worked together on many productions here there and everywhere, I can’t remember most of the jobs but what I do remember is we always had a laugh even on the grimmest of productions, Frank could always diffuse the twitchiest of situations with some devastating humorous aside! Frank decided he wanted to go lighting and in those days a cameraman in his twenties was a rare breed indeed. Frank broke the mould and his career as a cameraman took off ( I remember that Roller Frank )! It’s a measure of the man that so many people attended his funeral, all remembering a Gentleman and a gentle man, a talented Cameraman and above all his wonderful sense of humour. He leaves his beloved wife Jane and children Jojo and Jack. I will miss you Frank. Jerry Sandler Frank’s funeral was on 14th July at Kingston Crematorium. Donations in memory of Frank: to the NSPCC. Condolences – email: frankgell@hotmail.com |
Roy Moores Sadly, ROY MOORES passed away at home on Tuesday 5th February 2008. Many of you will, no doubt, be writing of your own experiences of knowing Roy, but in the meantime: |
Camera Operator/DoP, Ronnie Fox-Rogers It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my brother, Ronnie Fox-Rogers, who died of complications from a chest infection on Tuesday, January 30 last, at his nursing home in Pagham, West Sussex. He was 76. |
2007 |
Cinematographer, Freddie Francis, BSC Cinematographer, director and screenwriter Freddie Francis passed away on Saturday 17th March 2007 aged 89. He began working in the film industry in 1935 and his final film was in 1999. He was winner of two American Academy Awards for cinematography and was nominated for four Bafta cinematography awards. In 1998 he won the International Award from the American Society of Cinematographer's and was honoured by Bafta for his lifetime of work in the industry in 2004. |
Cinematographer, Ernie Day BSC It is with deep regret I learnt of the passing of Ernie Day. I knew of him all my professional life - his reputation preceeded - but it wasn't until the mid 60's I had the priviledge of becoming his 1st AC. |
Cinematographer, Peter Jackson GBCT BSC It is with great sadness and deep sorrow that Peter passed away on Sunday 12th November at Southlands Nursing Home Harrogate. |
Alex Thomson BSC We regret to announce that Alex Thomson sadly passed away on 14th June. He will be sadly missed by us all. |
Joe Garrett - Grip I worked with Joe at MGM Studios; he joined in the 1960's. We were stage hands together. I then started gripping and Joe followed two or three years later. |
Bob Stilwell - Legendary Camerman Legendary cameraman Bob Stilwell, described as one of the best loved people in the British film industry, has died from cancer at the age of 68. |
Cinematographer, Roland Schlotzhauer A helicopter being used to film scenes for a movie crashed in eastern Iowa on Friday 30 June 2006, killing Cinematographer Roland Schlotzhauer. He was 50. |
Peter Benchley - Jaws author Peter Benchley, author of the best selling novel Jaws, which was made into one of Hollywood 's most famous films, has died at his US home, aged 65. |
