British cinematographer, who began his career as a photo-journalist
for Life and Paris-Match, becoming a newsreel camera operator during
World War II before making his debut as a lighting cameraman at Ealing
on Dead of Night (1945). Slocombe
deserves much of the credit for the distinctive, unpretentious look
of Ealing, his work being seen at its best perhaps in It
Always Rains on Sunday (1947) and, in particular, in the luminous
Romney Marsh locations of The
Loves of Joanna Godden (1947). After Ealing, his career developed
as a freelance cinematographer on both sides of the Atlantic, with
British Academy awards for The Servant (1963), The Great
Gatsby (1974) and Julia (1977). Since the late 1970s he has shot a
number of films for Spielberg, most notably Close Encounters of the
Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom (1984). In 2007, Slocombe was awarded an OBE
in the New Year's honours list.
