MICHAEL CHAPMAN

(21 November 1935 - 20 September 2020)

The American cinematographer Michael Chapman, who has died aged 84 from congestive heart failure, became famous through his work with director Martin Scorsese. He began his career as a camera operator in 1965 on Joseph Cates’s Who Killed Teddy Bear? with Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse and Elaine Stritch, subsequently working on Aram Avakian’s End of the Road, Irvin Kershner’s Loving, Hal Ashby’s The Landlord, John Cassavetes’ Husbands, Alan J. Pakula’s Klute, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws among others. He became a fully-fledged cinematographer on Ashby's The Last Detail (1973) with Jack Nicholson. For Scorsese he did Taxi Driver, American Boy, The Last Waltz and Raging Bull, Martin Ritt’s The Front with Woody Allen, the remake of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and The Wanderers for Philip Kaufman, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and The Man With Two Brains, both with Steve Martin, Scrooged and Ghostbusters II, both with Bill Murray, The Fugitive with Harrison Ford, and many more until 2007 when his last film was Gabor Caupo’s Bridge to Terabithia. He also worked with Scorsese on Michael Jackson’s Bad video. Michael Chapman was also something of an actor, appearing in many of the films he photographed, including Deadly Pursuit, Kindergarten Cop, Doc Hollywood, Six Days, Seven Nights, The Story of Us and Quick Change. He was nominated in the Academy Awards for Raging Bull and The Fugitive. Michael Chapman was married twice, first to Myriam P. Brun and then to the writer Amy Holden Jones. He has four children, Emma, Patrick, Jonathan and Andrew.

MICHAEL DARVELL