Gerry Fisher, the veteran cinematographer, passed away just before Christmas and his death was formally noted this week. Fisher, who was aged 88, worked with a raft of well known and equally respected directors ranging from John Huston and Billy Wilder to Joseph Lacey and Russell Mulcahy .
After working for Kodak and DeHavilland Aircraft the young Gerry Fisher then served in the Royal Navy before joining Alliance Riverside Studios as a clapperboy and later as a focus-puller at Shepperton Studios. He worked on several 'B-Movies' after WWII and then progressed to camerawork for 1957's Bridge on the River Kwai (directed by David Lean), 1963's The VIPs (directed by Anthony Asquith) and Joseph L Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra (also 1963).
He got a significant break when he joined the adaptation of Harold Pinter's Accident (1966) after being approached by Lacey and Fisher decided to leave his job as a camerman on Casino Royale to take up the position. He immediately created a memorable skewed view with shadows and lighting, reflecting the psychological torment of the professor (Dirk Bogarde) obsessed with a young student. In 1970 he helped envision a lighter mood of The Go-Between (starring Alan Bates and Julie Christie) and Fisher was nominated for a BAFTA for his work.He was nominated again in 1976 for Aces High, set in the First World War.
Other projects included the memorable The Amazing Mr Blunden for Lionel Jefferies in 1972. On the more action-orientated front he was director of photography on John Wayne's London-based cop drama Brannigan (1975) and worked on the famous 1981 football drama Escape to Victory, mixing professional footballers such as Pelé and actor such as Michael Caine and a young Sylvester Stallone in a wartime setting. He was also responsible for a lot of the on-location shooting in Scotland for Highlander (1986), including a lot of the memorable Isle of Skye mountain-top shots.
He was reunited with Michael Caine for John Frankenheimer's The Holcroft Covenant in 1985 and Christopher Lambert for the Sean Bean-starring When Saturday Comes (1996)
He formally retired in 1999, but continued to be a respected veteran of the industry, receiving a lifetime achievement award from the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) in 2008.
He has been married for over fifty years to his wife, Jean Hawkins. She passed away just a few days before him and they had a joint funeral in early December. They leave a son, Cary Fisher, who followed in the family tradition and is also a cameraman.
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