Dick Pope, Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer of ‘Mr. Turner’ and ‘The Illusionist,’ Dies at 77

By J. Kim Murphy

According To The variety Richard Pope, the British cinematographer who collaborated with director Mike Leigh across his career and earned an Oscar nomination for his work lensing Leigh’s 2014 biopic “Mr. Turner,” has died.

Pope’s death was confirmed by the British Society of Cinematographers in a statement released Tuesday.

“It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Pope BSC,” the organization wrote. “Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the artform of cinematography. He was keen to embrace new technologies and ideas while also ensuring the skills and crafts of those that came before him weren’t lost.”

Pope’s artistic partnership with Leigh, the most enduring of his career, began with the 1990 drama “Life Is Sweet.” The film marked Leigh’s third feature. Pope has served as cinematographer on each of Leigh’s films since, with collaborating across period pieces and contemporary working class dramas that have documented the evolution of Britain into its post-Brexit form. In 2015, Pope was nominated for the Academy Award for best cinematography for Leigh’s “Mr. Turner,” a drama about the final years of painter J. M. W. Turner in the 1800s. He won the British Society of Cinematographers award for best cinematography on the film. Pope’s collaborations with Leigh and other British filmmakers provided him the reputation to leap across the pond and work in Hollywood productions. Over his career, he worked with Christopher McQuarrie on his shoot-em-up feature debut “The Way of the Gun,” Barry Levinson on the satire “Man of the Year,” and Richard Linklater on both “Me & Orson Welles” and “Bernie.” Pope received his first Oscar nomination for his work lensing Neil Burger’s magician thriller “The Illusionist,” released in 2006. Other director collaborators include Mike Newell, Edward Norton, Gurinder Chadha and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Among his other honors, Pope was a three-time recipient of the Camerimage Golden Frog, awarded at the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage in Poland each year. They each came for his work on a Leigh production, for “Secrets & Lies” in 2006 and “Vera Drake” in 2004.

Pope was born in Bromley, Kent in 1947. His earliest work as a cinematographer came in documentary with the series “World in Action.” He shifted to narrative television in the ’80s, leading to a BAFTA nomination for his work on “Porterhouse Blue.”

His final credit is “Hard Truths,” Mike Leigh’s latest feature, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste and marks the director’s first contemporaneous narrative since “Another Year” in 2010. Leigh mentioned in an interview that Pope had undergone heart surgery before the shoot. The film earned strong reviews out of its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, before playing the New York Film Festival and London Film Festival earlier this month. Bleecker Street has set an awards-qualifying limited release for December.

Pope is survived by his wife, Pat.