Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, revered as one of the most influential cinematographers in film history for his work on several classic films, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter, died Friday. He was 85.
The Hungarian-born Zsigmond died in Big Sur from “a combination of many illnesses,” said his business partner Yuri Neyman.
“Before Close Encounters, there were some space movies about spaceships, but nothing really that great technically that we could follow,” he said. “So we had to invent.” Zsigmond received three other Academy Award nominations during his more than five-decade career. He was nominated for 1978’s The Deer Hunter, 1984’s The River and 2006’s The Black Dahlia. He won an Emmy for the 1992 miniseries Stalin, and was nominated for 2001’s The Mists of Avalon.
He continued to work well into his later years, shooting several episodes of the comedy The Mindy Projec” from 2012 to 2014 as well as many other films that have yet to be released.
