Gordon Willis

• Name — Gordon Willis • Birth Name — Gordon Hugh Willis Jr. • Born — 28 May 1931 • Birthplace — Astoria, New York, U.S. • Died — 18 May 2014 • Place of death — North Falmouth, Massachusetts, U.S. • Burial Place — Massachusetts National Cemetery Bourne, Massachusetts • Occupation — Cinematographer • Known for — The Godfather (1972) The Godfather Part II (1974) Annie Hall (1977) Manhattan (1979) All the President's Men (1976) Interiors (1978) Stardust Memories (1980) Zelig (1983) Broadway Danny Rose (1984) The Godfather Part III (1990) • Years Active — 1966–1997 • Awards — Academy Honorary Award (2009)

Willis was born in Astoria, Queens, New York. His parents had been dancers in Broadway theatre before his father became a makeup man at Warner Bros. in Brooklyn. As a child, Willis fell in love with films. He wanted to be an actor and then became interested in lighting and stage design, later turning to photography. For a time he intended to be a fashion photographer, photographing models he knew from living in Greenwich Village. "I didn't know shit," Willis said, "[I was] dumber than dirt, as they say. No money, no jobs etc." Through contacts of his father's he worked as a "gofer" on various movies in New York. During the Korean War, Willis served in the Air Force, managing to join the Photographic and Charting Service in a motion picture unit. "I spent four years learning everything I could about making movies," Willis said. After leaving the Air Force a friend helped him to join the East Coast union in New York and he started to work as an assistant cameraman, working his way up to become a first cameraman about thirteen years later. He worked in advertising, shooting numerous commercials, and made a number of documentaries, a discipline that strongly influenced his later style. "You learn to eliminate, as opposed to adding," Willis said of his time making documentaries. "Not many people understand that." He was a camera operator on the feature documentary Windjammer (1958) filmed in the widescreen format Cinemiracle. Willis once stated: "I'm a minimalist. I see things in simple ways... It's human nature to define complexity as better. Well, it's not." In 1969, director Aram Avakian hired Willis to work on his film End of the Road. This was Willis' first movie.

Originally, Willis turned down the first two Godfather films, until Coppola told him they would not look the same without him. His work turned out to be groundbreaking in its use of low-light photography and underexposed film, as well as in his control of lighting and exposure to create the sepia tones that denoted period scenes in The Godfather Part II. His contributions carefully strengthened the themes of the story, as when shooting Marlon Brando with his eyes hooded in shadow, a piece of lighting design that followed from the fact that Brando's make-up had to be lit from above. Willis said that it was the color that stitched the Godfather films together. The visual structure of the films was, he said, his, but he gave Coppola credit for hiring him, saying: "I'm not that easy to deal with". He praised the director for the "management hell" of his struggles with Paramount, adding that he was "grateful he could separate the visual structure of these movies from the mess that went on to fashion them".

Willis' collaboration with Woody Allen began with Annie Hall (1977). Willis described making films with Allen as being so comfortable that it was like "working with your hands in your pockets". On Annie Hall he contrasted the warmth of Annie and Alvy Singer's romance in New York with the overexposure of the film's California scenes, while in Allen's Manhattan he was responsible for what has been called a "richly textured black-and-white paean to the beauty and diversity of the city itself". Willis, whose idea it was to use anamorphic widescreen for the filming, said: "We both felt that New York was a black-and-white city". Willis also worked on the Allen films Interiors (1978), Stardust Memories (1980), A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Allen said that working with Willis had helped to improve his technical skills, saying of him: "He's an artist. He's got a great sense of humor--he taught me a lot."

Willis directed one film of his own, Windows, in 1980. He admitted the film had been a mistake, and later said that he did not really like directing. "I've had a good relationship with actors," he reflected, "but I can do what I do and back off. I don't want that much romancing. I don't want them to call me up at two in the morning saying, 'I don't know who I am'". He was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director one year after the film's release. His last film was The Devil's Own (1997), directed by Pakula. Of his decision to retire, Willis said: "I got tired of trying to get actors out of trailers, and standing in the rain".

Willis died of cancer on May 18, 2014, ten days before his 83rd birthday, in North Falmouth, Massachusetts. ASC president Richard Crudo said: "He was one of the giants who absolutely changed the way movies looked. Up until the time of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, nothing previously shot looked that way. He changed the way films looked and the way people looked at films."

Film • Year — Title — Director • 1970 — End of the Road — Aram Avakian • Loving — Irvin Kershner • The Landlord — Hal Ashby • The People Next Door — David Greene • 1971 — Little Murders — Alan Arkin • Klute — Alan J. Pakula • 1972 — The Godfather — Francis Ford Coppola • Bad Company — Robert Benton • Up the Sandbox — Irvin Kershner • 1973 — The Paper Chase — James Bridges • 1974 — The Parallax View — Alan J. Pakula • The Godfather Part II — Francis Ford Coppola • 1975 — The Drowning Pool — Stuart Rosenberg • 1976 — All the President's Men — Alan J. Pakula • 1977 — Annie Hall — Woody Allen • September 30, 1955 — James Bridges • 1978 — Interiors — Woody Allen • Comes a Horseman — Alan J. Pakula • 1979 — Manhattan — Woody Allen • 1980 — Windows — Himself • Stardust Memories — Woody Allen • 1981 — Pennies from Heaven — Herbert Ross • 1982 — A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy — Woody Allen • 1983 — Zelig • 1984 — Broadway Danny Rose • 1985 — The Purple Rose of Cairo • Perfect — James Bridges • 1986 — The Money Pit — Richard Benjamin • 1987 — The Pick-up Artist — James Toback • 1988 — Bright Lights, Big City — James Bridges • 1990 — Presumed Innocent — Alan J. Pakula • The Godfather Part III — Francis Ford Coppola • 1993 — Malice — Harold Becker • 1997 — The Devil's Own — Alan J. Pakula TV movie • Year — Title — Director • 1984 — The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck — Simon Langton

Gordon Willis is recorded as cinematographer, director and film producer.

In the seven-year period up to 1977, Willis was the director of photography on six films that received among them 39 Academy Award nominations, winning 19 times, including three awards for Best Picture. The fact that Willis did not receive a single nomination was a subject of some controversy. His frequent absence from this period's nominees has been ascribed both to his unhidden "antipathy for Hollywood" and his work being ahead of its time. He was once quoted as saying of Hollywood, "I don't think it suffers from an overabundance of good taste". Willis was later nominated twice, once for his recreation of 1920s photography in Woody Allen's Zelig (1983), and then for The Godfather Part III (1990). In 2009, at the inaugural Governors Awards, the Academy chose Willis as the recipient of the Academy Honorary Award for his life's work.

• Year — Award — Category — Title — Result — Ref. • 1983 — Academy Awards — Best Cinematography — Zelig • 1990 — The Godfather Part III • 2009 — Honorary Academy Award • 1983 — American Society of Cinematographers — Outstanding Cinematography — Zelig • 1990 — The Godfather Part III • 1995 — Life Achievement Awards • 1976 — British Academy Film Awards — Best Cinematography — All the Presidents Men • 1979 — Manhattan • 1983 — Zelig • Best Visual Effects • 1972 — National Society of Film Critics — Best Cinematography — The Godfather • 1974 — The Godfather Part II • The Parallax View • 1979 — Manhattan • 1981 — Pennies from Heaven • 1983 — Zelig • 1981 — New York Film Critics Circle — Best Cinematography — Pennies from Heaven • 1983 — Zelig • 1981 — Boston Society of Film Critics — Best Cinematography — Pennies from Heaven • 1991 — Chicago Film Critics Association — Best Cinematography — The Godfather Part III