Happy 98th to a Great Cinematographer!
Friday, November 22, 2013 at 10:00AM Let's sing a big raucous happy birthday to 98 years young Oscar winner Oswald Morris who is still with us! That's a lot of candles. And a lot of great movies.
The British born Morris only ever received Oscar nominations for big screen musicals (Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof , and The Wiz) but that's hardly the full picture of his career. Though reknowned for his use of color -- his cinematography on Moulin Rouge (1952, recently discussed) was particularly innovative -- he also won prizes for his black and white work, most notably: Moby Dick, The Pumpkin Eater, The Hill, and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Other well known pictures include Equus, The Guns of Navarone, Stanley Kubrick's Lolita and a couple of Liz & Dick adventures (The Taming of the Shrew and Reflections in a Golden Eye). His awards haul includes 1 Oscar, 3 BAFTAs, 3 British Society of Cinematography wins and a couple of career tribute trophies.
Curiously or too-cutely, you decide, his last two motion pictures were all about puppets. He retired after The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Dark Crystal (1982) thirty-some years ago. We hope he's still enjoying that good long retirement.
The Dark Crystal was Morris's last gig before retirememt
The Pumpkin Eater with Anne Bancroft
Oswald (far left) with Deborah Kerr & Robert Mitchum on the set of "Heaven Knows Mr Allison"
Reader Comments (4)
THE PUMPKIN EATER. Devastating. Thanks for reminding me of Mr. Morris' achievements.
Nathan, thank you for remembering one of the greats. I just rewatched A Farewell to Arms, which boasts fantastically stunning photography and lighting. It's wonderful he's still with us. A versatile artist who has created such a lovely emotional and physical prism for us to view his art.
Lovely post.
I almost fainted after watching that marvelous pic of Anne Bancroft. I miss her so much.
Peggy Sue, I was just about to post the same thing! That picture of Anne really captures her terrifically incandescent beauty. Damn, she was the best. And that killer performance in The Pumpkin Eater! Sigh.