Allen Daviau, who shot three of Steven Spielbergās films, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, died April 14 of complications from COVID-19. He was 77.
A five-time Oscar nominee, Daviau also was behind the camera on Empire of the Sun, Bugsy, The Color Purple, Avalon and Defending Your Life.
āAllen 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,ā Spielberg said in a statement. The director had sent a letter to his old friend upon hearing of his struggle with the virus; it was read to him several times at his bedside.
Daviau was born on June 14, 1942, in New Orleans and raised in Los Angeles.
He was introduced to Steven Spielberg in the late 1960s and the two went on to work together on two early short films. They continued their professional working career by collaborating on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982); Kick the Can, a segment from Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Color Purple (1985), an episode of the NBC anthology series Amazing Stories titled Ghost Train (1985), and Empire of the Sun (1987).
Daviau’s work also includes John Schlesinger’s The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), the Spielberg-produced Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Albert Brooks’ Defending Your Life (1991), Barry Levinson’s Avalon (1990) and Bugsy (1991), Peter Weir’s Fearless (1993), Frank Marshall’s Congo (1995), Rand Ravich’s The Astronaut’s Wife (1999) and Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing (2004), his final feature.
He received lifetime achievement awards from the Art Directors Guild in 1997 and the American Society of Cinematographers in 2007.
Daviau shot thousands of commercials, documentaries, industrials and educational films, and created psychedelic special-effects lighting for Roger Corman’s The Trip (1967), before he gained entry into the International Photographers Guild