(15 August 1928 - 23 November 2018)
The British cinematographer and film director Nicolas Roeg, who has died aged 90, was never one to work on routine projects. Instead, he was mostly associated with controversial productions that often became something of a cult. His career began as a tea boy in the small Marylebone Studios which happened to be across from where he lived. He worked his way up to become a clapperloader and eventually camera operator on such films as The Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Sundowners, The Man Inside, Bhowani Junction, Lawrence of Arabia, The Caretaker, The Masque of the Red Death, Nothing But the Best, Fahrenheit 451, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Far From the Madding Crowd and Petulia. His first film as a director was Performance, co-directed with Donald Cammell. Controversy – sex, drugs and Mick Jagger – kept the film on the distributor’s shelf for two years. Walkabout was set in the Australian outback, Don’t Look Now featured Venice and was a popular and critical success. David Bowie played The Man Who Fell to Earth and then Art Garfunkel starred in Bad Timing with Theresa Russell, who became Roeg’s second wife. The film, however, was disowned by the Rank Organisation. Insignificance saw famous names of Marilyn Monroe, Einstein, Joe DiMaggio and Senator McCarthy meeting up. Of his later films, only The Witches really worked to its own advantage, with Castaway, Track 29, Cold Heaven and Two Deaths following as also-rans. Sadly, Roeg’s last film, Puffball (2007), was a huge disappointment. As a cinematographer, Roeg always displayed great imagination and a distinctive visual style. He was awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship in 1994, received the OBE in 1996 and won the Lifetime Achievement Awards at Raindance in 1999 and at the Transilvania International Film Festival in 2007. The London Film Critics’ Circle gave him the Dilys Powell Award in 2012. Roeg was married to actress Susan Stephen, with whom he had four children, Theresa Russell (two children) and latterly Harriet Harper (from 2005).
MICHAEL DARVELL
