Ronnie Taylor
Ronald " Ronnie " Taylor ( born October 27, 1924 in Hampstead, London ) is an English cinematographer.
Life
Taylor began in 1941 with 16 years of working in the film studios of Gainsborough Pictures in Islington. Until the closure of Gainsborough in 1951 he was there in the Camera Department, initially as assistant to the camera assistant, then as a camera assistant and finally since 1949 as a Camera Operator. This activity he held until the late 1970s. In the 1950s he was operator for camera men like Harry Waxman and Wilkie Cooper, from 1957, for Freddie Francis. Together with Francis, he was responsible for the visual side of important films of the British New Wave, so for Jack Clayton's Room at the Top (1959) and The Innocents (1961) and Karel Reisz for ' Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ( 1960). After Freddie Francis had passed into directing, Taylor worked in the 1960s and 1970s as an operator for British camera men like Geoffrey Unsworth, Gerry Turpin, Arthur Ibbetson, Douglas Slocombe, David Watkin, Dick Bush, John Alcott, Gilbert Taylor, Robert Paynter and John Coquillon.
As Director of Photography Taylor worked in 1975 in Ken Russell's musical film Tommy. Later followed with Gandhi (1982 ), A Chorus Line (1985) and Cry Freedom (1987 ) Three works for Richard Attenborough. For Gandhi Taylor received, together with co - cinematographer Billy Williams, 1982, a BAFTA nomination and the BSC Best Cinematography Award and 1983 Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Cry for freedom in 1987 brought him a BAFTA nomination.
With terror in the opera began in 1987 and Taylor's collaboration with the Italian director Dario Argento horror film. From 1990 to 1995 Taylor only worked as a cinematographer on some television productions. His only work since 1995 were two more Argento films, most recently in 2001, Sleepless, Argento's return to the no-frills Giallos 1970s.