26/08/2013 - British director of photography’s credits include Macbeth, FrenzyandStar Wars

Veteran British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor (photo) died on August 23. He was 99 years old. Taylor was born in 1914. He began his career in cinema as a camera assistant at Gainsborough Studios in 1929. After a decade of experience in the field, World War 2 intervened and Taylor served as an officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF). After a personal request from then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Taylor worked as a cameraman aboard RAF bombers, documenting the bombings and their aftermaths on celluloid.

Post-war, Taylor was camera operator on John Boulting’s celebrated Brighton Rock (1947) and debuted as cinematographer with his brother Roy Boulting’s The Guinea Pig (1948). Through a long and distinguished career Taylor worked with a veritable who’s who of cinema. He shot J. Lee Thompson’s war drama Ice Cold In Alex (1958); Richard Lester’s iconic Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night (1964); and Stanley Kubrick’s seminal anti-war black comedy Dr. Strangelove (1964).

Taylor enjoyed a creative partnership with Roman Polanski and the cinematographer-director pair worked together on Repulsion (1965), Cul-de-sac (1966) and Macbeth (1971). Taylor also shot Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy.

Sci-fi fan boys will remember Taylor for his visionary work on George Lucas’ first Star Wars film (1977). Taylor said in an interview with American Cinematographer magazine, “George avoided all meetings and contact with me from day one. So I read the extra-long script many times and made my own decisions as to how I would shoot the picture.”

Taylor was a founder member of the British Society of Cinematographers and was accorded their lifetime achievement award in 2001.