London-born cinematographer Jack Hildyard (1908-1990), known for capturing lushly exotic locations in ravishing Technicolor, had more than 80 British and American films to his credit and won an Academy Award for David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

Hildyard began working in films in 1932 as a "clapper boy" and focus puller before graduating to camera operator on such films as Leslie Howard's Pygmalion (1938) and Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944). Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh, was Hildyard's first film as cinematographer; he shared the credit with Jack Cardiff, Robert Krasker and Freddie Young. His solo career as a full lighting cameraman began with School for Secrets (1946).

Hildyard did some especially vivid work for director David Lean. In addition to the dense tropical jungles of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in The Bridge on the River Kwai, he brought to life the grim, wet North of England of Hobson's Choice (1954), and the achingly lovely Venice visited by Katharine Hepburn in Summertime (1955).

Among his other outstanding projects were two for director Anatole Litvak starring Yul Brynner: Anastasia (1956), co-starring Ingrid Bergman; and The Journey (1959), co-starring Deborah Kerr. With the hot-house atmosphere of Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn, Hildyard demonstrated how vivid his black-and-white work could be.

Hildyard returned to color in capturing the expansive Australian landscapes of Fred Zinnemann's The Sundowners (1960), starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr. He was nominated for Britain's BAFTA Awards for his work on The V.I.P.s (1963), The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) and Modesty Blaise (1966).

He continued working for another two decades, with his last major film project being Lion of the Desert (1981), starring Anthony Quinn and set in Libya. His final credit was for the TV movie Florence Nightingale (1985).

Hildyard, the brother of Oscar®-winning sound engineer David Hildyard, was awarded the British Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

by Roger Fristoe