David Watkin
Camera

David Watkin

Born 23 March 1925 · Margate, Kent, England, UK · Died 19 February 2008

David Watkin BSC (23 March 1925 – 19 February 2008) was an English cinematographer, an innovator who was among the first directors of photography to experiment heavily with the usage of bounce light as a soft light source. He worked with such film directors as Richard Lester, Peter Brook, Tony Richardson, Mike Nichols, Ken Russell, Franco Zeffirelli, Sidney Lumet and Sydney Pollack. In 1985, Watkin won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Out of Africa. He received lifetime achievement awards in 2004 from the British Society of Cinematographers and the cinematographic-centric Camerimage Film Festival in Łódź, Poland. In Chariots of Fire, he "helped create one of the most memorable images of 1980s cinema: the opening sequence in which a huddle of young male athletes pounds along the water's edge on a beach" to the film's theme music by Vangelis.

Known for

Out of Africa
Moonstruck
This Boy's Life
Return to Oz
Chariots of Fire
Jesus of Nazareth
The Devils
Memphis Belle
Hamlet
The Three Musketeers
Catch-22
Help!
All Forgotten
Tea with Mussolini
Gloria
Obsession
Critical Care
Night Falls on Manhattan
Bogus
Jane Eyre
Milk Money
This Boy's Life
Bopha!
Used People
The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez
The Object of Beauty
Hamlet
Memphis Belle
Murder on the Moon
Last Rites
The Good Mother
Masquerade
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Moonstruck
Sky Bandits
Out of Africa
White Nights
Return to Oz
The Hotel New Hampshire
Yentl
Chariots of Fire
La Cenerentola
Endless Love
That Summer!
Cuba
Hanover Street
Joseph Andrews
Robin and Marian
To the Devil a Daughter
Mahogany
The Four Musketeers
The Three Musketeers
A Delicate Balance
The Homecoming
The Devils
The Boy Friend
Catch-22
The Bed Sitting Room
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Red, White, and Zero
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade
How I Won the War
Mademoiselle
Help!
The Knack... and How to Get It
The Signal Engineers
The Travolators
They Take the High Road
Blue Pullman
Care of St Christopher’s
Under Night Streets
A Desperate Case
Lancashire Coast
The England of Elizabeth
The Long Night Haul
David Watkin · Midrow