RONNIE TAYLOR

(27 October 1924 - 3 August 2018)

The British cinematographer Ronnie Taylor, who has died at the age of 93, following complications after a stroke, had a long career working with many famous directors such as Jack Clayton, Karel Reisz, Ken Russell, Bryan Forbes, Anthony Harvey, Dario Argento, Richard Attenborough, Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas. His film career began in the 1940s as a clapper loader and focus puller until his first credit came as camera operator on It’s Not Cricket (1949) with Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne. He spent much of his working life as a camera operator on such titles as Boys in Brown, Brandy for the Parson, The Scamp, Room at the Top, The Rough and the Smooth, The Battle of the Sexes, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Innocents, The Wrong Box and The Whisperers. In 1969 he worked for Attenborough on Oh! What a Lovely War and then on Young Winston. He was also director of photography on Attenborough’s Gandhi (for which he won an Oscar), A Chorus Line and Cry Freedom. Taylor also worked with Ken Russell on Tommy, Valentino, Savage Messiah and The Devils. With Kubrick he photographed Barry Lyndon and for Argento he was DP on Opera, The Phantom of the Opera and Sleepless, Taylor’s last picture in 2001. Ronnie Taylor worked on countless other films including the first Star Wars in 1977, did a few movies for television and five episodes of The Avengers in 1965. He was married to Mary Devetta and they have two children. He retired to Spain and died on the island of Ibiza.

MICHAEL DARVELL