Allen Daviau was an Oscar-nominated cinematographer of films including “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,” “The Color Purple,” and “Empire of the Sun.”
- Died: April 15, 2020 (Who else died on April 15?)
- Details of death: Died at the Motion Picture Home in Los Angeles of COVID-19 coronavirus at the age of 77.
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Celebrated career
Daviau worked with director Steven Spielberg on many films, and their association went back to the very beginning of both of their careers. They worked together in 1968 on Spielberg’s first film, the short “Amblin.” Daviau had shot early music videos for artists including the Animals and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but his work with Spielberg was his entry into a celebrated career. He would continue to work with Spielberg over the years, earning Oscar nominations for their collaborations on “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial” (1982), “The Color Purple” (1985), and “Empire of the Sun” (1987). Daviau was also Oscar-nominated for “Avalon” (1990) and “Bugsy” (1991), and he won a BAFTA for “Empire of the Sun.” His other notable credits include segments of “The Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983), “The Falcon and the Snowman” (1985), and the Gobi Desert sequence of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977).
Daviau’s favorite scene in “E.T.”
“It would be the one in which the youngster [Henry Thomas] says, ‘I’m keeping him.’ The little girl [Drew Barrymore] walks forward, there are highlights in E.T.’s eyes, no detail in the face, and the light is yellow, the effect is very much that of a Maxfield Parrish painting.” —from a 1983 interview with American Cinematographer magazine
What people said about him
Full obituary: Los Angeles Times
