London - AFP
British cinematographer Oswald Morris, who won an Oscar for "Fiddler on the Roof" and worked with legendary directors including Stanley Kubric and John Huston, has died at the age of 98, former colleagues announced. The father of three passed away at his home in Dorset, southern England, on Monday, the British Society of Cinematographers said in a statement. "He had been suffering recently and was happy to move on, which he did contentedly at his home... but it is a great loss to us all," said the society, which he helped found. Morris was a lifelong fan of film, working as a cinema projectionist in his school holidays and getting his first job as a runner and clapper boy at Wembley Studios in London at the age of 16. His big break came with Huston's 1952 film "Moulin Rouge", which gave him his first real chance to experiment with using different techniques to change the images and colours onscreen. It also marked the beginning of a fruitful partnership between the two men, which included the films "Heaven Knows, Mr Allison", "Moby Dick" and "The Man Who Would Be King". Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Morris was in constant demand and worked on some of the biggest films of the day, including Kubrick's 1962 film "Lolita". He won an Oscar for "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1971, and three consecutive Baftas for "The Pumpkin Eater" in 1965, "The Hill" in 1966 and "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" in 1967. Morris was also nominated for an Oscar for Carol Reed's 1968 musical "Oliver!" and 1978's "The Wiz", a version of "The Wizard of the Oz" starring Michael Jackson. Aside from his film work, Morris was a decorated airman, having been awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his service as a bomber pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. "Ossie will be sorely missed by those in the industry, a delightful man, inspired by Ronald Neame and Guy Green, who in turn has himself been an inspiration to a new generation of cinematographers," the society said.