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Vilmos Zsigmond (; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wave movement. In 2003, he was voted as one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history by the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.
Over his career he became associated with many leading American directors, such as Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Michael Cimino and Woody Allen. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for The Deer Hunter. He also won an Emmy Award for the HBO miniseries Stalin.
His work on the films McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter made the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) list of the top 50 best-shot films from 1950–97. The ASC also awarded him with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.
In 1962, Zsigmond became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He settled in Los Angeles and worked in photo labs as a technician and photographer.
Some of the films that he worked on during this period credited him as "William Zsigmond", including The Sadist, the classic horror B movie The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, and the Second City satirical science fiction movie The Monitors.
Over the following decade, Zsigmond became one of the most in-demand cinematographers in Hollywood. Some of the major films he shot in the 1970s include John Boorman's Deliverance, Altman's The Long Goodbye and Brian De Palma's Obsession, as well as Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the latter of which won him the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at the 50th Academy Awards.
In 1978, Zsigmond worked on Michael Cimino's drama The Deer Hunter, starring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken. Zsigmond's visual work on the film earned him the 1980 BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography and another Academy Award nomination. Zsigmond again worked with Cimino on his 1980 epic Western Heaven's Gate.
Zsigmond continued to be in demand in the years that followed, working multiple times with several directors. He again worked with De Palma on his films Blow Out, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Black Dahlia. He worked with Mark Rydell on Cinderella Liberty, The Rose, The River, and Intersection. He worked with George Miller on The Witches of Eastwick and with Kevin Smith on Jersey Girl. He also worked with Woody Allen on Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra's Dream, and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
Vilmos' life and career was featured in , a bio-documentary that aired on PBS's Independent Lens in 2009.
In 2011 Zsigmond co-founded the Global Cinematography Institute in Los Angeles, along with fellow cinematographer Yuri Neyman. The Institute provided an advanced cinematography educational program for postgraduate students and veteran filmmakers.\
American Society of Cinematographers Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Lifetime Achievement Honors
Biography
Early life and education
Zsigmond was born in Szeged, Hungary, the son of Bozena (), an administrator, and Vilmos Zsigmond, a soccer player and coach. He became interested in photography at age 17 after an uncle had given him Művészi fényképezés ( The Art of Light), a book of black-and-white photographs taken by Hungarian photographer , but under the Soviet Union-imposed government of the Hungarian People's Republic he was not allowed to study the subject because his family was considered bourgeois. Instead, Zsigmond worked in a factory, bought a camera and taught himself how to take pictures, going on to organize a camera club for the workers. As a result he won the respect of local commissars and was allowed to study cinema at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest and received an MA in cinematography. He worked for five years in a Budapest feature film studio becoming director of photography.
Hungarian Revolution and move to the United States
Zsigmond, along with his friend and fellow student László Kovács, borrowed a 35-millimeter camera from their school and chronicled the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest by hiding the camera in a shopping bag and shooting footage through a hole they had cut in the bag. The two men shot thirty thousand feet of film and escaped to Austria shortly afterwards. In 1958 Zsigmond and Kovács arrived in the United States as political refugees and sold the footage to CBS for a network documentary on the revolution narrated by Walter Cronkite.
Early cinematography credits
The first film he worked on in the United States was the 1963 black-and-white exploitation film The Sadist, starring Arch Hall Jr. Throughout the 1960s, he worked on many low-budget independent and educational films as he attempted to break into the film industry. \
New Hollywood
Kovács, who shot the 1969 film Easy Rider for Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, recommended Zsigmond to Fonda for his 1971 Western film The Hired Hand. Later that same year Zsigmond was hired by Robert Altman for his revisionist western film McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which became Zsigmond's breakthrough film and marked his first time working on a major Hollywood production.
Later career
Zsigmond's television work includes the HBO miniseries Stalin, for which he won the 1993 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Special. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on 2001 miniseries The Mists of Avalon. Zsigmond also shot 24 episodes of The Mindy Project between 2012 and 2014.
Style and techniques
He was a longtime user and endorser of Tiffen filters, and is associated with the technique known as flashing or pre-fogging, which involves carefully exposing the film negative to a small, controlled amount of light in order to create a muted color palette.
Death
On January 1, 2016, Zsigmond died at his home in Big Sur, California, at the age of 85.
Filmography
Film
1963 The Sadist James Landis Living Between Two Worlds Bobby Johnson With Lee Strosnider 1964 What's Up Front! Bob Wehling The Time Travelers Ib Melchior The Nasty Rabbit James Landis 1965 Deadwood '76 With Lew Guinn Tales of a Salesman Don Russell Uncredited Summer Children James Bruner Rat Fink James Landis Psycho A-Go-Go Al Adamson 1967 The Road to Nashville Will Zens With Leif Rise Blood of Ghastly Horror Al Adamson With Louis Horvath 1968 The Name of the Game Is Kill! Gunnar Hellström Jennie: Wife/Child Robert Carl Cohen (Uncredited)
James Landis (Uncredited) 1969 Satan's Sadists Al Adamson Uncredited The Monitors Jack Shea Futz Tom O'Horgan Five Bloody Graves Al Adamson The Picasso Summer Serge Bourguignon
Robert Sallin (Uncredited) 1970 Horror of the Blood Monsters Al Adamson With William G. Troiano 1971 Red Sky at Morning James Goldstone McCabe & Mrs. Miller Robert Altman The Hired Hand Peter Fonda The Ski Bum Bruce D. Clark 1972 Images Robert Altman Deliverance John Boorman Country Music Robert Hinkle With Gary Galbraith 1973 The Long Goodbye Robert Altman Scarecrow Jerry Schatzberg Cinderella Liberty Mark Rydell 1974 The Sugarland Express Steven Spielberg The Girl from Petrovka Robert Ellis Miller 1975 Funny Lady Herbert Ross Uncredited 1976 Sweet Revenge Jerry Schatzberg Obsession Brian De Palma 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind Steven Spielberg 1978 The Deer Hunter Michael Cimino 1979 Winter Kills William Richert The Rose Mark Rydell 1980 Heaven's Gate Michael Cimino 1981 Blow Out Brian De Palma 1982 Jinxed! Don Siegel 1983 Table for Five Robert Lieberman 1984 No Small Affair Jerry Schatzberg The River Mark Rydell 1985 Real Genius Martha Coolidge 1987 The Witches of Eastwick George Miller 1989 Fat Man and Little Boy Roland Joffé 1990 Journey to Spirit Island László Pal The Two Jakes Jack Nicholson The Bonfire of the Vanities Brian De Palma 1993 Sliver Phillip Noyce 1994 Intersection Mark Rydell Maverick Richard Donner Also made a cameo as Albert Bierstadt 1995 The Crossing Guard Sean Penn Assassins Richard Donner 1996 The Ghost and the Darkness Stephen Hopkins 1998 Playing by Heart Willard Carroll Illegal Music Zane Zidel 2001 The Body Jonas McCord Life as a House Irwin Winkler 2002 Bánk bán Csaba Káel 2004 Jersey Girl Kevin Smith Melinda and Melinda Woody Allen 2006 The Black Dahlia Brian De Palma 2007 Cassandra's Dream Woody Allen 2010 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Louis Dan Pritzker Also made a cameo as "Hungarian Photographer" 2011 The Maiden Danced to Death Endre Hules With Zoltan Honti 2013 Compulsion Egidio Coccimiglio 2014 Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Arthur Allan Seidelman
Television
1969 Robert Day Episode "A Case of Good Whiskey at Christmas Time" 2001 The Mists of Avalon Uli Edel Miniseries 2012–14 The Mindy Project Charles McDougall
Michael Weaver
Michael SpillerEpisodes "Pilot", "Girl Next Door" and "Danny and Mindy"
Accolades
Major awards
Academy Awards
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind Best Cinematography 1978 The Deer Hunter 1984 The River 2006 The Black Dahlia 1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller Best Cinematography 1972 Images Deliverance 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1978 The Deer Hunter 1993 Stalin Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture Made for Television 1996 The Ghost and the Darkness Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases 2006 The Black Dahlia 2006 The Black Dahlia Best Cinematography 1992 Stalin Outstanding Cinematography 2001 The Mists of Avalon
Other awards
CableACE Awards 1994 Stalin Photography in a Movie or Miniseries Camerimage 2002 Bánk bán Best Film Adaptation of an Opera 2006 The Black Dahlia Golden Frog 2010 Louis 2014 God the Father Hollywood Film Awards 2006 The Black Dahlia Cinematographer of the Year National Society of Film Critics Awards 1972 McCabe & Mrs. Miller Best Cinematography 1973 Images 1974 The Long Goodbye 1982 Blow Out
See also
External links
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