JACK HILDYARD BSC

He made several films with David Lean including The Sound Barrier (1952) and Hobson's Choice (1954), Summertime (1955), as well as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the British Society of Cinematographers Award.

Starting as a clapper boy at Elstree Studios in 1932, by 1934 Jack was a focus-puller on Freedom of the Seas (Directed by Marcel Varney, photographed by Otto Kanturek). By 1938 he was working as camera operator on films for Leslie Howard and others, including Pygmalion (1938 directed by Anthony Asquith & Leslie Howard, photographed by Harry Stradling Snr), The Divorce of Lady X (1938 Directed by Tom Whelan, photographed by Harry Stradling Snr)and Pimpernel Smith (1941 Directed by Leslie Howard, photographed by Mutz Greenbaum (Max Greene BSC). He also operated on Laurence Olivier’s seminal work, Henry V (1944 photographed by Robert Krasker BSC in Technicolor). This gave him invaluable experience of colour cinematography and his subsequent films made him one of the most sought after cameramen in England. He was one of several DPs attached to the troubled Caesar and Cleopatra (1945 Directed by Gabriel Pascal) but his first solo credit as cinematographer was, While the Sun Shines (1947 directed by Anthony Asquith).

His other films included Anastasia (1956 directed by Anatole Litvak), The Sundowners (1960 Directed by Fred Zinneman), Suddenly Last Summer (1959 Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz), 55 Days at Peking (1963 Directed by Nicolas Ray). He was also the DP on the aborted Cleopatra (1963 directed by Rouben Mamoulian) which was forced to close down after the illness of its star, Elizabeth Taylor whilst at Pinewood. Other credits include Battle of the Bulge (1965 Directed by Ken Annakin), Casino Royale (1967 Directed by Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish and Richard Talmadge), The Beast Must Die (1974 Directed by Paul Annett) and The Wild Geese (1978 Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen). He also photographed both of producer-director Moustapha Akkad's films on Islamic history, The Message (1976) and Lion of the Desert (1981) and in 1983, director Mohamed Shukri Jameel's film, produced by Saddam Hussain, Al-Mas' Ala Al-Kubra, which was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 1983 Moscow International Film Festival.

He was also nominated for BAFTA Awards for his work on The V.I.P.s (1963), The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964 both directed by Anthony Asquith) and Modesty Blaise (1966 Directed by Joseph Losey).

He was a founding member of the British Society of Cinematographer and awarded the BSC Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

Phil Meheux BSC