 The son of film production controller Arthur Alcott,
cameraman John Alcott (born in Isleworth in 1931), who died sadly young of a heart attack, had a famous collaboration
with Stanley Kubrick. Having been assistant to ace cameraman Geoffrey Unsworth
during the '60s, he was asked to photograph the 'Dawn of Man' sequence on
2001: A Space Odyssey (d. Kubrick, 1968). Promoted to director of photography on
Kubrick's notorious A Clockwork Orange (1971), contributing notably to the chilly detachment of its vision, he won an Oscar for his extraordinary achievement on Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), in which he sought to replicate the effects of the lighting of the film's period, notably in interiors lit by candle. Nothing else in his career can have been as challenging as the four for Kubrick: the last was The Shining (UK/US, 1980) with its striking use of the Steadicam system. He emigrated to America in 1981, and made only one further British film, Greystoke... (UK/US, d. Hugh Hudson, 1984). American films include Under Fire (d. Roger Spottiswoode, 1983) and No Way Out (d. Roger Donaldson, 1986).
Bibliography
Petrie, Duncan, The British Cinematographer, (1996) Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
