Richard Moore, Panavision co-founder, cinematographer

Published 5:00 am Monday, August 31, 2009

Richard Moore, a cinematographer and co-founder of Panavision, has died. He was 83.

Moores Aug. 16 death at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., was age-related, said his son, Stephen Moore.

His cinematography credits include Winning in 1969, Myra Breckinridge and Sometimes a Great Notion in 1970, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean in 1972 and Annie in 1982.

Moore shared a 1959 scientific and engineering award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and received the Presidents Award from the American Society of Cinematographers in 2004.

Moore was born Oct. 4, 1925, in Jacksonville, Ill. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in cinema. His daughter, Marina Moore, said her father started working on documentaries and travelogues and in 1953 teamed with Robert Gottschalk to start Panavision.

Panavision developed a projector lens for the wide-screen format called Cinemascope, then began making camera lenses. The company revolutionized film in the 1970s with a hand-held studio camera that could record sight and sound simultaneously.

Marina Moore said her father left Panavision after nine years because he didnt want a desk job. He wanted to shoot. She said she was born in the Bahamas during the filming of the 1965 James Bond thriller Thunderball, for which her father shot underwater scenes.

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