"STAR WARS" CINEMATOGRAPHER, GILBERT TAYLOR PASSES ON AT 99

Gilbert Taylor, the man behind the visuals for "Star Wars" has passed on at the age of 99. Tho details of the death are still sketchy, Reports say he died of a prolonged infectiion that he had been battling with for some time.

The famed British lensman also worked on "Dr.
Strangelove," "Repulsion," "The Omen" and "A
Hard Day's Night."
Gilbert Taylor, the famed British cinematographer who shot
the first Star Wars film for George Lucas, Dr. Strangelove
for Stanley Kubrick , Repulsion for Roman Polanski and
The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night , has died. He was 99.
Taylor died Friday at his home on the Isle of Wight, his
wife, Dee , told the BBC .


During a career that began as assistant cameraman on
1930's Rookery Nook and lasted almost 65 years, Taylor also
worked on the war drama Ice Cold in Alex (1958); The
Bedford Incident (1965); Alfred Hitchcock 's penultimate
film, Frenzy (1972); Richard Donner 's horror classic The
Omen (1976); the Frank Langella-starring Dracula (1979);
and the fantasy Flash Gordon (1980).
Two films that he shot for Polanski -- the nightmarish black-
and-white horror film Repulsion (1965), starring Catherine
Deneuve , and Cul-de-Sac (1966) -- earned Taylor BAFTA
nominations in consecutive years. He also shot the director's
MacBeth (1971) and the Polanski-written A Day at the Beach
(1972).
Taylor did special effects photography on war movie The
Dam Busters (1955) and shot episodes of the 1960s TV
series The Avengers . He retired from film work in 1994.

Mr. Taylor was born at Bushy Heath, Hertfordshire in 1914, just before the 1st world war and was asked on special request by British Prime Minister,  Winston Churchill to cover the second world war on camera after training at Gainsborough Studios in London. RIP TO A GREAT VISIONER!