Gilbert Taylor was born on April 21, 1914 in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England. He is known for his work on Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and The Omen (1976). He was married to Dee Taylor. He died on August 23, 2013 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England.
Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Profession
Cinematographer, Camera Department, Director
Star Sign
Taurus
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Quote
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[Re Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and George Lucas who...] avoided all meetings and contact with me from Day 1, so I read the extra-long script many times and made my own decisions as to how I would shoot the picture.
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I am most happy to be remembered as the man who set the look for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). I wanted 'Star Wars' to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus.
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[re shooting Dr. Strangelove (1964) with Stanley Kubrick] Stanley could handle a camera, so I told him, 'For all this war stuff, we'll both put on battle dresses and take Arriflexes into the action. We'll film it just like combat cameramen.'
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Fact
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When the British film industry went through hard times in the mid-1970s, he and his wife set up a dairy farm with 250 cattle.
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He served in the RAF for six years during WWII, filming the results of night-time raids over Germany at the request of Winston Churchill.
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Joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and spent World War II photographing nighttime bombing raids over Germany. Later he and his small unit of cameramen covered the liberation of concentration camps and the signing of the armistice.
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Taylor had planned to be an architect, but after becoming an assistant to cinematographer William Shenton in 1929, when he was fifteen years old, he changed course.
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He started out in 1929 as a camera assistant at Gainsborough Studios in London.
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British cinematographer.
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With his wife, he operated a dairy farm with 250 head of cattle in the 1970's.
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He was a founder member of the British Society of Cinematographers and won a lifetime achievement award from the organisation in 2001.
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Spent six years during World War II with the RAF Volunteer Reserve, shooting footage of night time bombing raids over Germany.
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Began in 1929 as a camera assistant at Gainsborough.
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