Michael Chapman obit

Michael Chapman, Cinematographer on ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Raging Bull,’ Dies at 84

Michael Chapman, the two-time Oscar nominee who shot Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Waltz for Martin Scorsese, Invasion of the Body Snatchers for Philip Kaufman and The Fugitive for Andrew Davis, has died. He was 84. 

He was not on the list.

 

Michael Chapman, the two-time Oscar nominee who shot Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Waltz for Martin Scorsese, Invasion of the Body Snatchers for Philip Kaufman and The Fugitive for Andrew Davis, has died. He was 84.

Chapman’s death was announced on Twitter by his wife of 40 years, screenwriter Amy Holden Jones (Mystic Pizza, Beethoven, Indecent Proposal). He died Sunday of congestive heart failure at home in Los Angeles, son Andrew Chapman said.

Michael Chapman also was the DP on several films with a lighter tone, including Carl Reiner’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), Scrooged (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991) and Space Jam (1996).

He was known for his swooping camera movement and gritty, urban lighting, and his work illuminating New York City on Taxi Driver (1976) earned him the nickname “The Poet of the Sidewalks.”

Mentored by famed cinematographer Gordon Willis, Chapman received his Oscar noms for Raging Bull (1980) and The Fugitive (1993). He received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers in 2004.

Born in New York City on Nov. 21, 1935, Chapman was raised in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He attended high school at the Andover Academy and then Columbia University.

After college, Chapman worked on the Erie Lackawanna Railroad as a brakeman before being given his first job as a camera assistant by his father-in-law, French-born cinematographer Jo Brun. They two traveled the world together for many years, shooting commercials, documentaries and features including The Fat Spy (1966), which starred Phyllis Diller and Jayne Mansfield.

As a camera operator, he worked on such dramas as Irvin Kershner’s Loving (1970), Hal Ashby’s The Landlord (1970), Alan J. Pakula’s Klute (1971), Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). (Willis was the cinematographer on The Landlord, Klute and The Godfather.)

Chapman made his DP debut on Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973), then followed by shooting Martin Ritt’s The Front (1976) and James Toback’s Fingers (1978).

On Raging Bull, Chapman used a handheld camera to shoot much of the black-and-white movie and strapped cameras to actors to capture several boxing sequences. For The Last Waltz documentary, he employed as many as 10 cameras to photograph The Band and their famous guest artists.

In 1987, he and Scorsese collaborated once more on the 18-minute music video for Michael Jackson’s “Bad.”

Chapman’s résumé also included The Wanderers (1979), Personal Best (1982), The Lost Boys (1987), Rising Sun (1993), Primal Fear (1996) and Bridge to Terabithia (2007), his final credit. After retiring, he taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

He directed one major feature during his career — All the Right Moves (1983), starring Tom Cruise — and occasionally made cameos in the films that he shot.

He received the Camerimage Festival’s prestigious Golden Frog award for cinematography in 2016.

Survivors also include his children with Jones, Emma and Patrick; son Jonathan, who like Andrew he had with his first wife, Myriam; and four granddaughters.

Donations can be made in his memory to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation.

 

Filmography

Cinematographer

Film

 

Year     Title            Director           Notes

1973    The Last Detail            Hal Ashby 

1974    The White Dawn            Philip Kaufman         

1976    The Next Man            Richard C. Sarafian      

The Front            Martin Ritt      

Taxi Driver            Martin Scorsese

1978    The Last Waltz            Concert film

Invasion of the Body Snatchers            Philip Kaufman         

Fingers James Toback           

1979    The Wanderers            Philip Kaufman         

Hardcore            Paul Schrader         

1980    Raging Bull      Martin Scorsese            Nominated - Academy Award for Best Cinematography

1982            Personal Best  Robert Towne 

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid     Carl Reiner 

1983    The Man with Two Brains  

1987    The Lost Boys            Joel Schumacher     

Michael Jackson: Bad            Martin Scorsese            Music video

1988    Shoot to Kill   Roger Spottiswoode  

Scrooged            Richard Donner

1989            Ghostbusters II            Ivan Reitman           

1990    Quick Change            Howard Franklin

Bill Murray      

Kindergarten Cop     Ivan Reitman           

1991    Doc Hollywood            Michael Caton-Jones    

1992            Whispers in the Dark            Christopher Crowe     

1993    The Fugitive            Andrew Davis            Nominated - Academy Award for Best Cinematography

Nominated - ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Rising Sun            Philip Kaufman         

1996    Space Jam      Joe Pytka  

Primal Fear            Gregory Hoblit           

1998    Six Days, Seven Nights  Ivan Reitman           

1999    The Story of Us            Rob Reiner 

The White River Kid            Arne Glimcher          

2000    The Watcher            Joe Charbanic        

2001            Evolution        Ivan Reitman           

2004    Suspect Zero     E. Elias Merhige           

House of D            David Duchovny        

Eulogy  Michael Clancy 

2006    Hoot            Wil Shriner

2007    Bridge to Terabithia            Gábor Csupó 

TV movies

 

Year     Title            Director           Notes

1975    Death Be Not Proud            Donald Wrye            Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie

1988    Gotham            Lloyd Fonvielle            Nominated - CableACE Award Direction of Photography or a Dramatic or Theatrical Special

Miniseries

 

Year     Title            Director           Notes

1978    King: The Martin Luther King Story    Abby Mann   3 episodes

Director

All the Right Moves (1983)

The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)

Annihilator (1986) (TV movies)

The Viking Sagas (1995)

Other works

Year     Title            Director           DoP.            Notes

1965    Who Killed Teddy Bear     Joseph Cates   Joseph C. Brun            Assistant camera

1966    The Fat Spy

1968    The Thanksgiving Visitor  Frank Perry

1970    End of the Road            Aram Avakian            Gordon Willis    Camera operator

Loving  Irvin Kershner

The Landlord            Hal Ashby

The People Next Door            David Greene

Husbands            John Cassavetes            Victor J. Kemper

1971    Little Murders            Alan Arkin    Gordon Willis

Klute    Alan J. Pakula

1972    The Godfather            Francis Ford Coppola

Bad Company            Robert Benton

1975    Jaws            Steven Spielberg            Bill Butler

1982    The Slumber Party Massacre            Amy Holden Jones            Stephen L. Posey            Uncredited;

Director of photography: prologue

1998            Homegrown            Stephen Gyllenhaal            Greg Gardiner            Additional photography