Dick Pope, the esteemed British cinematographer who received Academy Award nominations for his exquisite work on “The Illusionist” and Mike Leigh‘s “Mr. Turner,” has died at the age of 77. His death was confirmed by a publicist on his final film, Leigh’s “Hard Truths.”
Born in Bromley, Kent, in 1947, Pope became obsessed with still photography as a child and published some of his pictures in local papers as a teenager. An uncle who worked for the BBC encouraged Pope to combine his interest in photography and his interest in movies, so he apprenticed for three years in a lab and got a crash course in multiple aspects of filmmaking as well as admittance to the union in the U.K.
Pope began his career as an animation cameraman making promotional and training films, then worked as a clapper and loader on the softcore movie “Her Loving Feeling” and other films he later described as “the dregs of British cinema.” His big break came when he got a job as documentary cameraman Mike Whitaker’s assistant; Pope worked for Whitaker for several years until Whitaker turned down a job and recommended Pope for it.
That moved Pope into the director of photography role on several documentaries and concert films, which ultimately led to a lucrative career shooting music videos. He made the leap to fiction features by shooting second unit for his friend Roger Deakins on director Michael Radford’s adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984,” and not long afterward director Stephen Bayly hired Pope to shoot first unit on the basis of his work on a Tina Turner music video.
Pope photographed two films for Bayly as well as the acclaimed horror film “The Reflecting Skin” in 1990, and later that year collaborated with Mike Leigh for the first time on “Life Is Sweet.” That led to the most productive partnership of Pope’s career, as he and Leigh worked together on an extraordinary streak of independent films that included “Naked,” “Secrets & Lies,” and “Topsy-Turvy.” Pope and Leigh hit an artistic peak in 2014 with “Mr. Turner,” Pope’s first foray into digital and one that earned him an Oscar nomination for its astonishing evocation of the title character’s painting style.
Pope was also nominated for “The Illusionist” in 2006, the same year he shot the political satire “Man of the Year” for Barry Levinson. An extraordinarily versatile cameraman, Pope was also a favored collaborator of Richard Linklater (“Me and Orson Welles,” “Bernie”) and Jill Sprecher (“Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,” “Thin Ice”) and created high gloss on a low-budget in John Sayles “Honeydripper.”
It was with Leigh, however, that Pope consistently created his best work, culminating in the simultaneously gorgeous and terrifying “Peterloo,” a 2018 movie that marked Leigh and Pope’s first foray into large-scale action. They reunited for Pope’s final film, “Hard Truths,” set to be released in America December 6.
He is survived by his wife, Pat.
