Gordon Willis
| Gordon Willis | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Gordon Hugh Willis, Jr. May 28, 1931 Astoria, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 18, 2014 (aged 82) North Falmouth, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Occupation | Cinematographer |
| Years active | c. 1970–2014 |
| Awards | Academy Honorary Award (2009) |
Gordon Hugh Willis, Jr., ASC (May 28, 1931 – May 18, 2014) was an American cinematographer. He is best known for his work on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather series as well as Woody Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan. Fellow cinematographer William Fraker called Willis's work a "milestone in visual storytelling", while one critic suggested that Willis "defined the cinematic look of the 1970s: sophisticated compositions in which bolts of light and black put the decade's moral ambiguities into stark relief".
When the International Cinematographers Guild conducted a survey in 2003, they placed Willis among the ten most influential cinematographers in history.
Willis was born in Astoria, Queens, New York City. His parents had been dancers in Broadway theatre before his father became a makeup man at Warner Bros. in Brooklyn. As a child, Willis fell in love with films. He wanted to be an actor and then became interested in lighting and stage design, later turning to photography. For a time he intended to be a fashion photographer, photographing models he knew from living in Greenwich Village. "I didn't know shit," Willis said, "[I was] dumber than dirt, as they say. No money, no jobs etc." Through contacts of his father's he worked as a "gofer" on various movies in New York.
During the Korean War Willis served in the Air Force, managing to join the Photographic and Charting Service in a motion picture unit. "I spent four years learning everything I could about making movies," Willis said. After leaving the Air Force a friend helped him to join the East Coast union in New York and he started to work as an assistant cameraman, working his way up to become a first cameraman about thirteen years later. He worked in advertising, shooting numerous commercials, and made a number of documentaries, a discipline that strongly influenced his later style. "You learn to eliminate, as opposed to adding," Willis said of his time making documentaries. "Not many people understand that."
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