Oswald Morris obituary

The Oscar-winning British cinematographer Oswald Morris, who has died aged 98, will be remembered for many classics, including Moulin Rouge, Fiddler on the Roof, Moby Dick and Lolita. He worked with some of the great directors, John Huston, Sidney Lumet, Carol Reed, Stanley Kubrick and Franco Zeffirelli. Many of Morris’s films are landmarks in the history of colour cinematography. For Moulin Rouge (1952) he used filters to create a style reminiscent of paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec. For Fiddler on the Roof (1971), which won him an Oscar, he filmed with a silk stocking over the lens to give a sepia effect.

Morris also shot popular favourites such as The Guns of Navarone (1961), Oliver! (1968), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and photographed acting luminaries: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart. He was at the height of his profession for 30 years.

He was born in Hillingdon, west London, and attended Uxbridge county school. His father, a newsagent, would make one-minute films with Ossie (as he was always known) and his brother, Reg, in their garden in Ruislip, under the name of “Bogside Productions” – so called because filming took place near the outside loo. Morris left school when he was 16 to enter the film industry, first as an unpaid apprentice, then as a clapper boy at £2 a week. By his twenties he had graduated to camera operator, first at Wembley studios and later at Elstree.

His career was interrupted by the second world war. Conscripted into the RAF, he flew Lancaster bombers on raids over France and Germany and won the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943. He was then transferred to Transport Command and took Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, chief of the Imperial General Staff, on a world tour in 1945, one of their ports of call being the second Yalta conference with Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. For this he completed a rare double by winning the AFC (Air Force Cross) to go with his DFC.

In 1945, he set about relaunching his career within the British film industry. His postwar experience as a camera operator was for the top flight directors of photography Wilkie Cooper and Guy Green on films including Green for Danger (1946), Blanche Fury (1947) and Oliver Twist (1948). An important break came when cameraman-turned-director Ronald Neame upgraded Morris to lighting cameraman. Neame’s film was a mundane actioner, The Golden Salamander (1949), but it had a good cast and credits and led to Morris working on a moving love story, So Little Time, and an Alec Guinness vehicle, The Card (both 1952), the second of six collaborations with Neame.

Thanks to his hard work and enthusiastic flexibility, Morris enjoyed many productive partnerships. His next film, Moulin Rouge, proved to be his big break and the first of his eight films with Huston. For this film, Huston, Morris and Eliot Elisofon devised a style using special filters that – to the initial despair of the staid Technicolor laboratories – created muted, soft tones, a contradiction of everything normally demanded. Decades later it remains the outstanding aspect of an otherwise rather dull biopic. This gained Morris the first of four awards from the British Society of Cinematographers for best cinematography. He never gave up the cinema for commercials or TV and over his long career shot nearly 50 films.

Another stroke of luck came in 1954, when the French director and screenwriter René Clément, then at the height of his fame, came to Britain with Gérard Philipe to make Knave of Hearts (1954). Like Huston, Clément knew the value of an original shooting style and on this underrated black comedy opted for spontaneous, location-led photography that reflected his documentary background. The experience was invaluable to Morris.

He was reunited with Huston on another movie that also became a cult film, the starry but ill-fated Beat the Devil (1954), and two years later they embarked on an ambitious colour experiment with Moby Dick, seeking to reproduce whaling prints of the period. The effect of desaturation and special printing gave an etched feel to the colour. The director took Morris on location for Heaven Knows, Mr Allison (1957) and Roots of Heaven (1958), shot in CinemaScope.

Morris was also in demand from other leading directors, Tony Richardson for Look Back in Anger (1959) and The Entertainer (1960), Reed for The Key (1958) and Our Man in Havana (1959). He worked, less happily, with Kubrick on Lolita (1962). In 1963, while he was shooting Of Human Bondage, Morris’s wife, Connie, with whom he had three children, died suddenly. He left the production, but after returning from his grief immersed himself in work.

In the mid-sixties his mono work reached a peak (nurtured since Knave of Hearts) with three successes, all of which won him Bafta awards for best British cinematography. On The Pumpkin Eater (1964) he provided Jack Clayton with a grainy, claustrophobic feeling to match the intense drama. For Martin Ritt on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold his superbly lit locations and dramatic interiors reflected the sombre events. Finest of all was his achievement on Lumet’s blistering The Hill (1965), set in a North African punishment camp for British soldiers. The rugged documentary tone with an emphasis on heat and unremitting glare contributed immeasurably to the tough performances.

He was called to Italy by Huston to complete Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) (begun by the great Italian cameraman Aldo Tonti). Once again a desaturated effect was demanded by Huston, plus a golden hazy glow to heighten the story of heated passions and betrayal. Although it still looked stunningly effective on release, only one print was struck that adequately reflected the creator’s intentions and sadly that was never seen commercially. Morris was also in Italy for Zeffirelli’s exuberant Taming of the Shrew (1967), with a photographic style indebted to Italian Renaissance art. It was during this film that Morris announced his engagement to the continuity girl Lee Turner. With characteristic flair the stars Taylor and Burton arranged for the wedding to take place in Positano.

He ended the decade with three lavish musicals, Oliver! for Reed, Goodbye Mr Chips (1969) for Herbert Ross, then Scrooge (1970) for Neame. Even these were capped when Fiddler on the Roof won him an Oscar for best cinematography. He recalled that the director, Norman Jewison, had “pushed me to my limit, and I need to be pushed when I’m working”. They achieved an unfussy style to reflect the simple humanity of the characters through the changing seasons.

The decade was completed with a steady stream of work, often with old pals – Huston on the dismal The Mackintosh Man (1973) and the masterly The Man Who Would Be King; Neame on The Odessa File (1974) and Lumet on Equus (1977) and The Wiz (1978). There was also a Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), a version of Dracula and then, rather oddly, two collaborations with Jim Henson’s puppet workshop, The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and the ambitious fantasy Dark Crystal (1982).

Morris then decided to retire with Lee to their home in Dorset. His enthusiasm for the medium never diminished and he became involved with the film course at Bournemouth University, with the local film society and festivals, and lectured with enthusiasm about his craft.

He is survived by his children, Gillian, Christine and Roger, and by 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Lee died in 2003.

Oswald (Ossie) Morris, cinematographer, born 22 November 1915; died 17 March 2014