William Fraker
About
Biography
Filmography
Notes
In 2001, Fraker was awarded the Mary Pickford Alumni Award from USC.
"I think the criterion for separating the men from the boys is the fact that when you look at a cinematographer's work on screen, you have to look at the consistency of the work. The consistency has to be there." --William A Fraker quote introducing section on Fraker in "Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers" by Dennis Schaefer and Larry Salvato (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: The University of California Press, 1984)
Biography
An elder statesman of cinematography traditionally trained in the old style of the Hollywood cameraman, William A Fraker successfully bridged the gap to the newer freedoms and technological innovations of modern cinema, all the while actively campaigning to enhance the status of the director of photography within the industry power structure. His maternal grandmother, father and uncle had all worked as still photographers within the studio system, and he resolved at an early age to be a cameraman. After attending the University of Southern California's film school on the GI Bill and finding himself frozen out of The Camera Guild, Fraker scraped by as an editor at various television production companies and took non-union camera jobs shooting inserts and stock footage. He finally began as a loader in 1954 on the ABC series "The Lone Ranger" and subsequently spent over seven years on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (ABC), rising from second assistant to operator during that time. He has often expressed his appreciation for director-star Ozzie Nelson: "If there's any success I've achieved or will achieve, I attribute the major portion of it to Ozzie."
Once he became an operator, Fraker began his association with fellow USC alum Conrad Hall on such TV shows as the Western "Stoney Burke" (ABC, 1962-63) and "The Outer Limits" (1963-65). When Hall graduated to features, he tapped Fraker as his operator for three of his first four pictures as director of photography, two of which ("Morituri" 1965, "The Professionals" 1966) earned him Oscar nominations. Fraker then made his own debut as cinematographer on "The Games" (1967) and followed quickly that year with "The Fox" and "The President's Analyst," wherein he began to push boundaries via use of faster and wider lenses, restricted lighting sources and techniques like "flashing" and deliberate overexposure. He would truly prove his mettle in 1968 with two very diverse, commercial properties. Shooting almost entirely inside, he helped director Roman Polanski capture the dreamlike, claustrophobic quality of the restrained horror classic "Rosemary's Baby." In contrast, Peter Yates' "Bullitt" exploded off the screen, and its vicious duel between a Mustang Fastback and a Dodge Charger along San Francisco's rolling hills established the benchmark for automobile chase sequences. He also landed Joshua Logan's big-budget epic musical "Paint Your Wagon" (1969) because art director-production designer John Truscott had seen "The Fox" and knew they were striving for a similar look.
"Paint Your Wagon" was the first Western feature Fraker photographed, but the homegrown Southern Californian has often steered his career back to that genre in a continuing effort to bring his vision of the West to the screen. "I love Westerns, because that period is one of the most romantic times in history," he told American Cinematographer (February 2000). He made his feature directorial debut with "Monte Walsh" (1970), based on the novel by Jack Schaefer (the author of "Shane"). The film starred Lee Marvin as an aging cowboy who realizes that the West he knew and loved was vanishing, taking his place with it as well. In addition to revisiting the West (and his professional past) for his third directing assignment, "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" (1981), which he shot in Monument Valley as an homage to director John Ford, he has also addressed his Western vision as a director of photography on the films "Rancho Deluxe" (1975), "Murphy's Romance" (1985) and "Tombstone" (1993).
Despite periodic work as a director, Fraker's first love remains cinematography, and he has frequently been invaluable as a director of photography to first-time directors like Floyd Mutrux ("Dusty and Sweets McGee" 1971), inaugurating a five-picture collaboration, and Charles Shyer ("Irreconcilable Differences" 1984), with whom he worked on two additional features. He met actor Burt Reynolds on the set of "Fade-In" (1968) and later served as cinematographer on his directing debut, "Gator" (1976), as well as for "Sharkey's Machine" (1981), not to mention directing him in the ABC movie "The Dancer's Touch" (1989). "Heaven Can Wait" (1978) successfully paired Fraker with first-time co-directors Warren Beatty and Buck Henry and allowed him to re-create the old studio lighting of the "Golden Age" pictures that had inspired him in the first place. That film earned him his second Oscar nomination (the first, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," had come the year before), and he would garner four more nods (two for "1941" 1979, "WarGames" 1983 and "Murphy's Romance").
Fraker followed his illustrious peers Haskell Wexler and Bill Butler to shoot the last 10 days or so of Milos Forman's Academy Award-winning Best Picture "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) and true to his mantra of "consistency" kept to the style established by his predecessors. Two decades later, he and John Frankenheimer signed on to "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1996) a week into production after the original cinematographer and director had quit over creative differences with the studio. Although he hasn't helmed a feature since "The Legend of the Lone Ranger," his directing work for TV has included six episodes of the acclaimed CBS series "Wise Guy" at the end of the 80s and a 1993 episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" (CBS). After he worked with yet another first-timer, Stephen Kessler, on "Vegas Vacation" (1997), Fraker's inability to find meaningful material kept him on the sidelines for the rest of the 90s, but following his receipt of the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers, he roared back with two highly-anticipated features, William Friedkin's "Rules of Engagement" (2000) and Peter Chelsom's "Town & Country" (2001), the latter reuniting him with Warren Beatty.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Cinematography (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Film Production - Main (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cinematography (Special)
Life Events
1954
Got start in television, beginning as a loader on the ABC series "The Lone Ranger"
1956
Served as camera assistant on "The Young Guns"
1961
Worked as director of photography on the documentary "Forbid Them Not"
1964
Was camera operator on "Father Goose"
1965
Operated camera on three of Hall's first four features as director of photography, "Wild Seed", "Morituri" and "The Professionals" (first collaboration with director Richard Brooks), the latter two earned Hall Oscar nominations
1967
Feature debut as director of photography, "Games" (Universal)
1968
First association with Burt Reynolds, "Fade-In"
1968
Enjoyed professional and creative turning point with the success of Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" and Peter Yates' "Bullitt", serving as director of photographer on both
1970
Made feature directorial debut with "Monte Walsh"
1971
First of five films with director Floyd Mutrux, the semi-documentary "Dusty and Sweets McGee"; also appeared in picture as a big-time drug dealer, as well as being a partner in the Laughlin-Fraker-Mutrux-Michael Production
1971
Helmed "Reflection of Fear" (released in 1973)
1975
Reteamed with Mutrux for "aloha, bobby and rose"
1975
Shot the last 10 days or so of Milos Forman's Academy Award-winning Best Picture "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", after both Haskell Wexler and Bill Butler had worked on it
1976
Served as cinematographer for Reynolds' feature directorial debut, "Gator"
1977
First collaboration with Steven Spielberg, shot additional scenes for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
1977
Received first Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography for work on Richard Brooks' "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"
1978
Third film with Mutrux, "American Hot Wax"
1978
Earned second Academy Award nomination for "Heaven Can Wait", co-directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
1979
Received two Oscar nominations for Spielberg's "1941" for Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography
1980
Fourth film with Mutrux, "The Hollywood Knights"
1981
Reunited with Reynolds for "Sharkey's Machine"
1981
Third feature directing project, "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"
1983
Earned another Oscar nomination for "WarGames"
1984
First film with director Charles Shyer, "Irreconcilable Differences"
1985
Second film as director of photography for Brooks, "Fever Pitch"
1985
Sixth and last Academy Award nomination to date, "Murphy's Romance"
1987
Was cinematographer on Hugh Wilson's "Burglar"
1987
Reunited with Shyer on "Baby Boom", starring Diane Keaton
1989
Reteamed with Yates on "An Innocent Man"
1989
Helmed "The Dancer's Touch" (ABC), the first of 12 TV-movies starring Reynolds as B L Stryker
1990
First film with director Andrew Bergman, "The Freshman"
1990
Fifth film with Mutrux, "There Goes My Baby" (released in 1994)
1992
Reunited with Bergman for "Honeymoon in Las Vegas"
1993
Served as associate producer and cinematographer on "Tombstone"
1993
Helmed an episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" (CBS)
1994
Served as director of photography on Sandra Locke's ABC movie "Death in Small Doses"; Locke had acted in his "A Reflection of Fear"
1995
Third feature with Shyer for "Father of the Bride Part II", starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton
1996
Along with director John Frankenheimer, signed on for "The Island of Dr Moreau" a week into the scheduled production after the original director and cinematographer left due to creative differences with the studio
1997
Captured Las Vegas again for "Vegas Vacation"
1999
Honored by the American Society of Cinematographers with a lifetime achievement award
2000
Served as director of photography on William Friedkin's "Rules of Engagement", starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson, and Peter Chelsom's "Town & Country", which reteamed him with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Bibliography
Notes
In 2001, Fraker was awarded the Mary Pickford Alumni Award from USC.
"I think the criterion for separating the men from the boys is the fact that when you look at a cinematographer's work on screen, you have to look at the consistency of the work. The consistency has to be there." --William A Fraker quote introducing section on Fraker in "Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers" by Dennis Schaefer and Larry Salvato (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: The University of California Press, 1984)
"I don't believe in style. I think you find what the movie looks like within the material. And the director, the actors, the location all help you dictate the look of the film, not some arbitrary style you want to impose." --Fraker quoted in Moviemaker, June-July 1998
On receiving the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers: "I was flabbergasted, and I'm very honored. I love the ASC; it means a hell of a lot to a lot of people, so I'm very happy to get this award. Being recognized by your peers is probably more important than anything else."Also, if any success is given to me, it has to be shared with my crew--they are magnificent and loyal: gaffer Doug Pentek, best boy Don Yamosaki, camera operator David Diano, camera assistant Ted Chu and key grip Al Laverde." --Fraker to David E Williams in American Cinematograper, February 2000
"Why would anybody want to re-create reality? The only reason to attend a concert, a stage play or a movie is to escape reality. You have to be a storyteller, to invite the audience into what you want to say and take them on a trip. Part of that is photography, so why should I try to make it look 'real'?"One of the things I love about shooting in the studio, as opposed to on location, is that you can walk onto a dark stage and put that first light anywhere. That's the first brushstroke, and you can then build on it with each additional lamp. You create your own reality, rather than re-creating something that's already there." --Fraker in American Cinematographer, February 2000
