Acclaimed British cinematographer Anthony Richmond's résumé not only spans more than half a century, but boasts multiple collaborations with a veritable who's-who of five-star international filmmakers and some of the most intelligently crafted features to have emerged from the U.S. and Britain in the post-'60s cinematic Zeitgeist.
A self-made professional, the London-born Richmond entered the film world at the tender age of 15, with an entry-level position as messenger boy at Associated British Cinemas. He then climbed up from the bottom of the ranks, transferring to Pathé-News with a promotion to the camera department, first as a clapper boy and later -- on 1968's Casino Royale -- as a focus puller. In 1964, Richmond met iconoclast Nicolas Roeg (then a cameraman), thus beginning a lengthy friendship that would result in a series of astonishing professional collaborations and some of the finest work of either's career (Walkabout, Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bad Timing).
Richmond officially debuted as a D.O.P. under the directorial wing of a giant -- the late Basil Dearden -- for 1967's Only When I Larf. A kind of early Grifters-style comedy about a trio of con artists (David Hemmings, Alexandra Stewart, and the eminent Richard Attenborough), the film opened to generally favorable, if not spectacular, reviews; Variety tagged it "a pleasant little joke" and deemed the technical contributions (from Richmond and others) satisfactory. Two dozen features followed throughout the '70s and '80s; during this period, Richmond's directorial collaborators included Roeg, Jean-Luc Godard, Blake Edwards, Ivan Passer, J. Lee Thompson, and many others.
Richmond's greatest cinematographic accomplishment during these two decades was probably Don't Look Now, thanks to his ability -- together with Roeg (who did uncredited cinematographic work on the piece) -- to lens an almost subliminal series of rapid-fire occultic images, establish a feeling of almost tangible dread and malaise, and evoke wintry Venice more atmospherically than any feature before or since. The reviews that praised Don't Look Now invariably singled out Richmond's work on it; Roger Ebert wrote, "I've been though the film a shot at a time, paying close attention to the use of red as a marker in the visual scheme. It is a masterpiece of physical filmmaking, in the way the photography evokes mood and the editing underlines it with uncertainty." Amid production on Don't Look Now, Richmond and Roeg also made movie history by purportedly shooting the first non-simulated love scene (between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) in a mainstream commercial feature.
Richmond helmed commercials for KMart and made occasional forays into directing, such as 1984's Déjà Vu. That film, however, failed to receive broad distribution and slipped past most critics, which doubtless encouraged Richmond to adhere to his primary craft. The cinematographer's activity dipped during the '80s (though he lensed Blake Edwards' That's Life! and Sunset, among others), but reaccelerated in the '90s and 2000s, when his credits included The Indian Runner (1991), Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), Legally Blonde (2001), Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003), John Tucker Must Die (2006), and Employee of the Month (2006). As is apparent from even this brief list, Richmond's roster of projects became increasingly geared toward audience-pleasers as the years rolled on, doubtless because of the growing dominance of Hollywood product in the international marketplace.
Richmond wed the former Breck model, Charlie's Angels alum, Kmart spokeswoman, and telemovie mainstay Jaclyn Smith in 1981; it marked her third marriage and his first. The couple divorced eight years later after having two children.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Cinematographer |
2011 | |||
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William and Kate
Cinematographer |
2011 | |||
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Acceptance
Cinematographer |
2009 | |||
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Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Cinematographer |
2009 | |||
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Miss March
Cinematographer |
2009 | |||
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The Rocker
Cinematographer |
2008 | |||
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Good Luck Chuck
Cinematographer |
2007 | |||
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The Comebacks
Cinematographer |
2007 | |||
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Autopsy
Cinematographer |
2006 | |||
|
Cinematographer Style
Participant |
2006 | |||
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Employee of the Month
Cinematographer |
2006 | |||
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John Tucker Must Die
Cinematographer |
2006 | |||
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Just Friends
Cinematographer |
2005 | |||
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Riding the Bus with My Sister
Cinematographer |
2005 | |||
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A Cinderella Story
Cinematographer |
2004 | |||
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Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
Cinematographer |
2004 | |||
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Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
Cinematographer |
2003 | |||
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Shade
Cinematographer |
2003 | |||
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The Sweetest Thing
Cinematographer |
2002 | |||
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Legally Blonde
Cinematographer |
2001 | |||
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Sister Mary Explains It All
Cinematographer |
2001 | |||
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Someone Like You
Cinematographer |
2001 | |||
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Cherry Falls
Cinematographer |
2000 | |||
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Men of Honor
Cinematographer |
2000 | |||
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A Walk on the Moon
Cinematographer |
1999 | |||
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Agnes Browne
Cinematographer |
1999 | |||
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Ravenous
Cinematographer |
1999 | |||
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Playing God
Cinematographer |
1997 | |||
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Bastard out of Carolina
Cinematographer |
1996 | |||
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First Kid
Cinematographer |
1996 | |||
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Full Body Massage
Cinematographer |
1995 | |||
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Tales From the Hood
Cinematographer |
1995 | |||
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The Immortals
Cinematographer |
1995 | |||
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Heart of Darkness
Cinematographer |
1994 | |||
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A Case for Murder
Cinematographer |
1993 | |||
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Four Eyes and Six Guns
Cinematographer |
1993 | |||
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The Sandlot
Cinematographer |
1993 | |||
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Candyman
Cinematographer |
1992 | |||
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Scissors
Cinematographer |
1991 | |||
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The Indian Runner
Cinematographer |
1991 | |||
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Timebomb
Cinematographer |
1991 | |||
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Cat Chaser
Cinematographer |
1990 | |||
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Road Raiders
Cinematographer |
1989 | |||
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Settle the Score
Cinematographer |
1989 | |||
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Sunset
Cinematographer |
1988 | |||
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The In Crowd
Cinematographer |
1988 | |||
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That's Life!
Cinematographer |
1986 | |||
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Deja Vu
Director |
1984 | |||
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Slapstick of Another Kind
Cinematographer |
1982 | |||
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Thor il Conquistatore
Director |
1982 | |||
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Head On
Cinematographer |
1981 | |||
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Improper Channels
Cinematographer |
1981 | |||
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Bad Timing
Cinematographer |
1980 | |||
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Nightkill
Cinematographer |
1980 | |||
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Love and Bullets
Cinematographer |
1979 | |||
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The American Success Company
Cinematographer |
1979 | |||
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Silver Bears
Cinematographer |
1977 | |||
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The Man Who Fell to Earth
Cinematographer |
1976 | |||
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Stardust
Cinematographer |
1974 | |||
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Don't Look Now
Cinematographer |
1973 | |||
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Walkabout
Cinematographer |
1971 | |||
|
Only When I Larf
Cinematographer |
1968 | |||
|
The Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus
Cinematographer |
1968 |

