Legendary cinematographer and filmmaker Jack Cardiff passed away yesterday at the age of 94. An Oscar winner for Black Narcissus, in 1948, Cardiff's career as cinematographer spanned an astonishing eight decades, with his career in films going all the way back to an 1918 acting job.
Cardiff will be best remembered for his long collaboration with directors Powell & Pressburger on films like A Matter of Life & Death and The Red Shoes, but he also worked on classics like The African Queen for John Huston, **The Barefoot Contessa **for Joseph L. Mankiewicz and King Vidor's War and Peace.
Cardiff also directed films of his own, the most successful of which was probably Sons and Lovers, starring Trevor Howard and Dean Stockwell. He was working well into this century, and leaves behind a wife and four sons.
Asked once which of his many credits he was most proud of, Cardiff replied, "Naturally, I am proud of successful films that I have enjoyed working on like The Red Shoes and the Black Narcissus and I have had a certain satisfaction from that.
"But the films that I am most proud of - the film for instance that I made under great difficulty, Sons and Lovers, I wanted to make it into a good film because the book is marvellous and I didn't want to let the author down."