Biography for
Gordon Willis (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

28 May 1931, Queens, New York, USA

Nickname

The Prince of Darkness

Trade Mark

Known in the industry as "The Prince of Darkness", due to his lighting technique of using shadows and often not allowing a character's eyes to be seen clearly (The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Parallax View (1974)).

Trivia

In a spectacular seven-year period from 1971 to 1977, seven of the films he worked on as director of photography accumulated 39 Oscar nominations with 19 wins. Among these wins were three Best Picture winners (The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Annie Hall (1977)) and six for acting (Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, John Houseman, Robert De Niro, Jason Robards and Diane Keaton). Incredibly, Willis failed to secure a single nomination for himself during this period.

Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1975.

Received a honorary Academy Award in 2009. Other honorees were Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman and Thalberg Award recipient John Calley.

Personal Quotes

[on "ruining" footage to create the look of time-ravaged 1920s newsreels] "The lack of perfection, that's the hardest quality of all, because you're fighting your instincts. You're trained to want to do things perfectly."