Whether working on major movies, shooting music videos or taking photographs, Allen Daviau’s eye for an image shone through.
He received a number of Academy Award nominations during a long and successful career in film and television that spanned four decades.
Mr Daviau, who has died aged 77 due to complications related to coronavirus, was a favourite of directors including Steven Spielberg, with whom he worked as cinematographer on ET.
He had latterly been staying at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in California.
Mr Daviau was born in New Orleans in 1942 but raised in Los Angeles where he first met Spielberg in the 1960s.
He received his first Oscar nomination in 1983 for cinematography for ET the Extra Terrestrial.
Spielberg issued a heartfelt tribute on social media, saying of his former collaborator that he was: “A wonderful artist, but his warmth and humanity were as powerful as his lens.
“He was a singular talent and a beautiful human being.”
Mr Daviau went onto shoot The Colour Purple and Empire of the Sun, receiving Academy Award nominations for each.
Following his collaborations with Spielberg, he worked with other famous directors including Barry Levinson and Albert Brooks on Bugsy and Defending Your Life.
Mr Daviau also worked on the early music videos of popular artists including The Who and Jimi Hendrix and also shot some of the earliest official photos of American band The Monkees.
He worked on his last major film in 2004, serving as the director of photography on Van Helsing.
Mr Daviau was a recipient of Lifetime Achievement awards from the Art Directors Guild as well as the American Society of Cinematography.
