“Billy williams, the esteemed british cinematograper who shared an oscar for chooting gandhi and also was nominated for his glenda jackson-starrying woolve in lol, f) Pond, have died. He was 96. Williams’ Death Was Announced in British Cinematographer Magazine. No Details on the Cause of Death”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Williams’ Death Was Announced in British Cinematographer Magazine. No Details on the Cause of Death Were Provides.
“WITH DEEP Sorrow, We Bid Farewell to Billy Williams – An Outstanding British Cinematographer, Laureate of the“ Golden Frog ”for Exceptional Access Tweeted The Official X Account of Cameerimage, The Poland-Based Film Festival Dedicated to Cinematography.
Williams Also Served As the Director of Photography on John Milius’ The Wind and the Lion (1975), Stuart Rosenberg’s Voyage of the damned (1976), Martin Brest’s Going in style (1979) and Peter Yates’ Suspect (1987).
The London Native Receiven An Early Career Break Who He Was Hired for Ken Russell’s Billion Dollar Brain (1967), The Third Film in the Michael Caine-Starring Harry Palmer Spy Series, and He Reunned with the Demanding Director On Women in love (1969) and The Rainbow (1989).
“I was soon to learn working with ken russell that he was like likely to ask for the sort of thing of something had hadn’t ben Stories interview. “YOU HAD TO FIND A WAY OF DOING IT. IT WAS A GREAT CHALLENGE.”
After Shooting the Iraq Scene for William Friedkin’s The exorcist (1973) and The Wind and the Lion in brutal conditions in SpainWilliams Found HimSelf TESTED AGAIN ON RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH’s Gandhi (1982), with Many sequences filmed on location in india.
“” IT WAS OBVIUSLY VERY HOT AND DUSTY, AND TRAVELING WAS NOT EASY, “WILLIAMES RECALLED IN 2020.” IT WAS A TOUHH SCHEDULE. We WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WEVTHT Rushes on a mobile Protector.
After Studying Hours of Newsreel Footage of Activist Mahatma Gandhi, Williams Had to Leave the Production After Six Weeks for Treatment in The UK for a Slipped Disc. He suggested ronnie taylor replace HIM (Taylor Had Worked with AttenboRough As a Camera Operator on 1969’s Oh! What a lovely war and 1972’s Young Winston and with Williams On The wild and the lion).
The First Scene Taylor Photographed Was The Re-Creation of Gandhi’s 1948 Funeral That Featured 400,000 Extras.
Williams Returned After Four Weeks in Recovery But Encounted The Same Problem Again, SO HE LEFT AND TAYLOR CAME BACK. He Said It Was The only Two Times Had Ever Left A Movie.
“Billy and I DID About 10 weeks each on the picTure,“ Taylor told British Cinematographer Magazine. “Richard atenborogh Decides that if there was going to be any nominations, that billy and i should shald Share the Credit.”
GandhiMade for About $ 22 Million and Shot in 35mm Anamorphic, Received 11 Academy Award Noms and Won eight Trophyes, Including Those for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Ben King. (Williams Accepted His Prize on Oscar Night, With Taylor Unable To Leave Work On Champions).
Billy Williams with Actor Ben Kingsley on the Set of Gandhi (1982) BSC Archive/Courtesy of British Cinematographer Magazine
After Finding Out He Was Hired for Gandhi, Williams Departed for New Hampshire to Shoot On Golden Pond (1981), Starring Fonda, His Daughter, Jane, and Katharine Hepburn. WHEN DIRECTOR MARK RYDELL DIDNN’T KNOW HOW TO FILM A BIRTHDAY CARTY FOR FONDA’S NORMAN TAYER, WILLIAMS HAD An IDEA.
He suggested they “put the camera on a track and start by the Kitchen Area,” he said. “Kate [came] Out of the Kitchen with those 80 Candles Burning, so we’ve got this lovely warm light glawing onto her face, and we track with her ber a little whi. We Reveal The Dining Area with The Other Waiting for Her. She joins Henry fonda who make a little speech about the joys of becking 80, and then they all lean fotorward and help Him Blow Out the Candles.
“The Camera Tilts Down, They Blow Out The Candles and It Goes Dark and that’s The Cut and It Worked BeautyFully. We Didn’T DO A SINGLE CUTAWAY.”
Williams Was Born on June 3, 1929, in Walthamstow, London. His Father, Billy Sr., Was An Intrepid Cinematographer Who Filmed The Surrender of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in Scotland in 1919, then Worked on Documentaries.
Durying World War II, Williams Left School WHEN HE WAS 14 TO BECOME HIS DAD’SSTANT. “HE WAS A VERY HARD TASKMASTER, Everything Had to Be Done Just Right,“ HE RECALLED. “Of Course, The Camera Had to Be Locked After Like A Baby. It Was So Prew.”
In 1946, he traveled to Kenya and Uganda with his Father, who was then the chooting for the Colonial Film Unit.
Billy Williams at Age 8 with His Facher’s Vinten Model H 35MM Camera BSC Archive/Courtesy of British Cinematographer Magazine
Williams Serveda As a Photographer with The Royal Air Force for Two Years, THEN WORKED As An Assistant Cameraman for British Transport Films, Shooting Documentaries About Dacks. He Saved Up to Purchase His Own Arriflex Camera, DID Commercials and Eventuly Made His Feature Debut on the Black-And Hope, Sound-Effects Comedy San Ferry Ann (1965).
WHEN OLDER CINEMATOGRAPHER OTTO Heller (The Ladykillers, Alfie) Refused to take A Medical Exam to Be Insured for Billion Dollar Brainwhoh was going to be filmed in Frigid Finland, Producer Harry Saltzman Turned to Williams, Who Have Done Commercials for Russell.
For Alan Bates and Oliver Reed’s Memorable Naked Wrestling Scene in Women in loveWilliams and Russell Decided to “GO for A Very Strong Color Effect Like the Color of Firelight, Which Is Very Orange,” He Said in David A. Ellis’ 2012 Book, Conversations with cinematographers. “I Filtered All The Lamps to Be The Same Color As The Fire and Created A Flickering Effect.”
Williams’ résumé also included ted kotcheff’s Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969), John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Michael Anderson’s Pope Joan (1972), X, y and zee (1972), Kid blue (1973), The Silent Partner (1978), Eagle’s Wing (1979), Boardwalk (1979), MONSIGNOR (1982), Yates’ Eleni (1985), The Manhattan Project (1986), Stella (1990) and Driftwood (1997), His Final Film.
A Four-Time Bafta Nominee, Williams Served As the President of the British Society of Cinematographers from 1975-77 and Taught Cinematography at the National Film Theater Starting in 1975-77
He Received Lifetime Achievement Honors from Cmerimage in 2000 and the British Society of Cinematographers in 2006 and wasted the officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2009.
“I Feel I have been Very Lucky to have had a career in filmmaking, whoh have the most satisfying, rewarding, excishing job and can Imagine,“ He Said.