Fred J. Koenekamp obit

Fred Koenekamp, Oscar-Winning Cinematographer on ‘The Towering Inferno,’ Dies at 94

His long list of credits also includes 'Patton,' 'Papillon,' 'Islands in the Stream' and 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' 

He was not on the list.

Fred Koenekamp, the Oscar-winning cinematographer known for his work on such films as Patton, Papillon and The Towering Inferno, has died. He was 94.

Koenekamp died May 31, his daughter Kathy told The Hollywood Reporter. He suffered a stroke last year and died at her home in Bonita Springs, Fla.

Koenekamp spent more than a decade at MGM, where he served as director of photography on several films as well as on the stylish NBC series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The innovative cinematographer won his Oscar (shared with Joseph F. Biroc) for the disaster-film classic The Towering Inferno (1974) and also was nominated for Patton (1970) and Islands in the Stream (1977), a pair of George C. Scott starrers directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

He also collaborated with Schaffner on Papillon (1973), Yes, Giorgio (1982) and Welcome Home (1989).

Koenekamp served as a DP on more than 40 features, including Live a Little, Love a Little (1968), The Great Bank Robbery (1969), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), Billy Jack (1971), Kansas City Bomber (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Fun With Dick and Jane (1977), The Champ (1979), The Amityville Horror (1979), First Family (1980) and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension (1984).

Koenekamp served a 16-year apprenticeship before he became a director of photography, and he retired in the late 1980s. The American Society of Cinematographers honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

His father was H.F. Koenekamp, an Oscar nominee who began his career as a cinematographer at Mack Sennett Studios in 1913 and did special effects work on films including High Sierra, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, White Heat and Strangers on a Train. He died in 1992 at age 100.

“It didn’t mean that much as a young kid that my dad worked in pictures,” Koenekamp recalled in a 2005 interview with American Cinematographer magazine. “But every once in a while, he would take me to the studio on Saturdays. He was in special effects at Warner Bros., and Stage 5 housed the camera and special effects department. There was a balcony that overlooked the stage where they had all the miniatures. I used to just love to go up there and look around.”

A native of Los Angeles, Koenekamp spent 3½ years in the Navy, serving in the South Pacific. He landed a job as a camera loader at RKO in 1947, and “all of a sudden I was totally fascinated by the picture business,” he recalled.

He became an assistant cameraman on Underwater! (1955), starring Jane Russell, where he learned to do underwater work. MGM then hired him to work a camera on an Esther Williams movie.

At the studio, he graduated to camera operator and worked on Raintree County (1957), The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and such TV shows as The Lieutenant, created by Gene Roddenberry, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., for which he did nearly 100 episodes and earned Emmy nominations in 1965 and 1966.

“I was on The Great Bank Robbery [at Warner Bros.] when I got my really big break,” he said in the 2005 interview. “My agent called and said Fox wanted me to interview with a director. It turned out to be Frank Schaffner, and the picture was Patton.”

After he and Irwin Allen collaborated on The Towering Inferno, the producer hired him again for The Swarm (1978), When Time Ran Out … (1980) and the 1985 CBS telefilm Alice in Wonderland.

In addition to Kathy, survivors include his other children Barbara, Dona and Jim — the head of Fire in Motion, which supplies fire trucks and other related apparatus to Hollywood productions — seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A memorial will take place at 1 p.m. on June 17 at Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Mortuary in Newhall, Calif.

 

 

Films

Year     Title            Dir.            Notes

1965    The Spy with My Face     John Newland            Feature-length adaptations of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes

1966    One Spy Too Many            Joseph Sargent

One of Our Spies Is Missing E. Darrell Hallenbeck

1967    The Spy in the Green Hat            Joseph Sargent

The Karate Killers  Barry Shear

The Helicopter Spies    Boris Sagal

Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!            Peter Tewksbury      

1968    Sol Madrid Brian G. Hutton

Stay Away, Joe            Peter Tewksbury

Live a Little, Love a Little            Norman Taurog

1969    Heaven with a Gun            Lee H. Katzin

The Great Bank Robbery            Hy Averback

1970    Beyond the Valley of the Dolls            Russ Meyer

Flap     Carol Reed

Patton            Franklin J. Schaffner            Nominated for Academy Award for Best Cinematography

Won Golden Laurel Award

1971    Billy Jack     Tom Laughlin            with John M. Stephens

Skin Game            Paul Bogart

Gordon Douglas

 

Happy Birthday, Wanda June            Mark Robson

1972    Stand Up and Be Counted            Jackie Cooper

The Magnificent Seven Ride!            George McCowan

Kansas City Bomber            Jerrold Freedman

Rage    George C. Scott

1973    Harry in Your Pocket            Bruce Geller

Papillon            Franklin J. Schaffner

1974            Uptown Saturday Night    Sidney Poitier

The Towering Inferno John Guillermin            with Joseph F. Biroc

Won Academy Award for Best Cinematography

Nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography

 

1975    Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze            Michael Anderson        

Posse   Kirk Douglas

White Line Fever            Jonathan Kaplan

1976    Embryo            Ralph Nelson

1977    Fun with Dick and Jane     Ted Kotcheff

The Domino Principle            Stanley Kramer

The Other Side of Midnight            Charles Jarrott

The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training            Michael Pressman

Islands in the Stream            Franklin J. Schaffner            Nominated for Academy Award for Best Cinematography

1978    The Swarm Irwin Allen   

1979    Love and Bullets            Stuart Rosenberg            with Anthony B. Richmond

The Champ            Franco Zeffirelli           

The Amityville Horror  Stuart Rosenberg

1980    When Time Ran Out            James Goldstone

The Hunter            Buzz Kulik

First Family            Buck Henry

1981    Carbon Copy    Michael Schultz

First Monday in October            Ronald Neame

1982    Wrong Is Right Richard Brooks

Yes, Giorgio            Franklin J. Schaffner

It Came from Hollywood            Andrew Solt

1983    Two of a Kind  John Herzfeld

1984    The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension            W. D. Richter with Jordan Cronenweth

1986            Stewardess School            Ken Blancato            Credited as Anton Ken Krawczyk

1989    Listen to Me            Douglas Day Stewart  

Welcome Home            Franklin J. Schaffner

1991    Flight of the Intruder            John Milius   Final film

Television

Year     Title            Notes

1963-1964            The Lieutenant            28 episodes

1964-1967            The Man from U.N.C.L.E.            90 episodes

1965    The Outer Limits            1 episode

1966    Jericho

1968            Mission: Impossible            2 episodes

Shadow on the Land            Television film

1970    Night Chase

1971    In Search of America

The Deadly Hunt

Crosscurrent

1972-1973            Kung Fu        3 episodes

1973            Hawkins

1975    The Runaway Barge            Television film

Conspiracy of Terror

1979    Salvage 1          Pilot episode

Disaster on the Coastliner            Television film

1982    Tales of the Gold Monkey            2 episodes

Money on the Side            Television film

1983    Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.

1984            Summer Fantasy

Obsessive Love

City Killer

Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac

The Vegas Strip War

A Touch of Scandal

1985    Not My Kid

The Other Lover

Amos

Alice in Wonderland            Miniseries

2 episodes

 

1986            Pleasures            Television film

News at Eleven

1986-1987            Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color            5 episodes

1987    Student Exchange            Television film

1988    14 Going on 30

Splash, Too

1989    Hard Time on Planet Earth    1 episode