Owen Roizman, 86, the noted cinematographer. has died following a long illness, according American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), of which Roizman served as president from 1997 to 1998.
Roizman received five Oscar nominations, for The French Connection, The Exorcist, Network, Tootsie, and Wyatt Earp. In 2017, he received an honorary Academy Award for his lifelong contributions to cinematography.
The French Connection, released in 1971, was only the second film he had worked on. Director William Friedkin tapped his talents after seeing Roizman’s earlier work on Stop, a film that was never released by Warner Brothers due to its X rating. In a 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Roizman recounted: “Friedkin said, ‘I like your work in it; what I want to do … what I want it to be is a realistic street photography sort of thing.’ I said, ‘Why not? I should be able to do anything you tell me. I’m a cinematographer.’ He liked my attitude.”
For The French Connection, Roizman was responsible for shooting the thrilling car-chase scene through the streets of New York City that received much critical acclaim for its rawness and mayhem. According to The All Movie Guide, “The contributions made by Roizman for ‘French Connection’ could fill a cinematography textbook in itself.”
Two years later, Roizman again worked with Friedkin on The Exorcist, for which he crafted the chilling scene of the scene where the priest cast out demons from the possessed. another scene lauded for its graphic rawness.
The prolific cinematographer also worked on The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight; The Taking of Pelham One Two Three; Play It Again, Sam; The Heartbreak Kid; and The Addams Family.
Roizman was born in New York City in 1936. He originally had ambitions to be a baseball player and tried out for the New York Yankees, but polio thwarted his ambitions. His father was a camereman for Movietone News and became an assistant to the cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld.
The younger Roizman graduated from Gettysburg College in 1958 with a degree in math and physics.
During the 1980s, he left the film world for a few years to start a production company that shot hundreds of television commercials.
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