Gordon Willis obit

R.I.P. ‘The Godfather’ DP Gordon Willis

 

He was not on the list.

Iconic cinematographer Gordon Willis died early Sunday at age 82 after a battle with cancer, surrounded by family at his Cape Cod home. Most famous for his distinctive cinematography work on Francis Ford Coppola‘s Godfather series, Willis’s also worked with Woody Allen on some of his great New York-based movies, including  Manhattan, Annie Hall, Zelig, Stardust Memories, Broadway Danny Rose, and The Purple Rose Of Cairo. He was a fixture with New York-based directors, also working with the late Alan J. Pakula on the classic All The President’s Men, Klute, and The Parallax View, and worked with Herbert Ross’s Pennies From Heaven; and Malice, The Devil’s Own. Official cause of death has not been disclosed, but expect Monday morning to be Gordon Willis appreciation day around the cinephile set. Phone calls and social media posts about Willis’s passing began trickling in Sunday evening. “This is a momentous loss,” confirmed ASC President Richard Crudo late Sunday night. “He was one of the giants who absolutely changed the way movies looked. Up until the time of The Godfather 1 and 2, nothing previously shot looked that way. He changed the way films looked and the way people looked at films.”

Queens, NY-born Willis cultivated a background in photography and served in the Korean War as an Air Force Photographic and Charting Serviceman before starting his film career as an assistant cameraman, working his way up with commercials and documentaries. He made his debut as a cinematographer with four features in 1970: comedy End of the Road, Irvin Kershner’s Loving, drama The People Next Door, and Hal Ashby’s The Landlord. His deft use of shadows and light for Coppola’s 1972 mafia classic The Godfather was a career-maker for Willis, who came to be known as one of the most influential cinematographers in the field. Despite his landmark contributions, Willis didn’t win either of the Oscar nods earned for films with two of his most frequent collaborators – Woody Allen’s Zelig and Coppola’s The Godfather Part III. He also shot 1986’s The Money Pit, 1988’s Bright Lights, Big City, 1990’s Presumed Innocent, and his own lone directorial effort, the 1980 thriller Windows. In 2009 the Academy awarded him an Honorary Academy Award “for unsurpassed mastery of light, shadow, color and motion.”

 

Filmography

Year     Title            Director           Notes

1965    The Beatles at Shea Stadium            Bob Precht 

1970    End of the Road            Aram Avakian           

The Landlord            Hal Ashby 

Loving  Irvin Kershner         

The People Next Door            David Greene

1971    Little Murders            Alan Arkin   

Klute    Alan J. Pakula 

1972    Bad Company            Robert Benton

The Godfather            Francis Ford Coppola 

Up the Sandbox            Irvin Kershner         

1973    The Paper Chase            James Bridges

1974    The Parallax View            Alan J. Pakula 

The Godfather Part II  Francis Ford Coppola 

1975    The Drowning Pool            Stuart Rosenberg       

1976    All the President's Men     Alan J. Pakula 

1977            September 30, 1955            James Bridges

Annie Hall            Woody Allen   

1978            Interiors          

Comes a Horseman            Alan J. Pakula 

1979            Manhattan        Woody Allen   

1980            Windows        Himself

Stardust Memories            Woody Allen   

1981    Pennies from Heaven            Herbert Ross    

1982    A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy            Woody Allen   

1983    Zelig    

1984    The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck            Simon Langton            TV movie

Broadway Danny Rose            Woody Allen   

1985    The Purple Rose of Cairo   

Perfect James Bridges

1986    The Money Pit            Richard Benjamin         

1987    The Pick-up Artist            James Toback           

1988    Bright Lights, Big City            James Bridges

1990            Presumed Innocent            Alan J. Pakula 

The Godfather Part III Francis Ford Coppola 

1993    Malice            Harold Becker

1997    The Devil's Own            Alan J. Pakula