Walter Lassally | |
|---|---|
 Lassally in Crete with his Oscar | |
| Born | 18 December 1926 |
| Died | 23 October 2017 (aged 90) Chania, Crete |
| Occupation | Cinematographer |
| Years active | 1946–2016 |
Walter Lassally (18 December 1926 – 23 October 2017[1][2]) was a German-born Britishcinematographer. He won theAcademy Award for Best Cinematography in 1965 for the filmZorba the Greek.
Lassally was born in Berlin, Germany. His family was Protestant by religion, but Jewish by ancestry.[3] They moved to England in 1939 to escape the Nazis.[4] He was closely associated with theFree cinema movement in the 1950s, and theBritish New Wave in the early 1960s. He worked in the early 1960s with directorTony Richardson on the film versions ofA Taste of Honey (1961),The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) andTom Jones (1963).
Lassally also worked with Greek filmmakerMichael Cacoyannis between 1956 and 1967, and withJames Ivory in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s he moved toStavros, nearChania inCrete, the town where he shotZorba the Greek in 1963.
His autobiography,Itinerant Cameraman, was published in 1987. He was featured in the book Conversations with Cinematographers by David A. Ellis, published by Scarecrow Press in 2011.
He made his debut as an actor inRichard Linklater'sBefore Midnight (2013), where he played an older British writer settled in Greece. Lassally died on October 23, 2017, at the age of 90 in Crete, Greece.[5][6]
In 1965, Lassally won anAcademy Award for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) forZorba the Greek (1964). This Oscar melted during a fire at Christiana's Restaurant, on the night of January 1, 2012.
On January 26, 2008, theAmerican Society of Cinematographers (ASC) presented Lassally with an International Achievement Award at the 22nd Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration, at the Hollywood and Highland Grand Ballroom, Los Angeles.
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