Kovacs, Laszlo

▪ 2008

      Hungarian-born American cinematographer

born May 14, 1933, Cece, Hung.

died July 22, 2007, Beverly Hills, Calif.

photographed notable films of the 1960s and '70s that represented the rise of a new independent cinema, beginning with Easy Rider (1969), in which he made the landscape a vital part of the movie. Kovacs studied at Budapest's Academy of Drama and Film Art but fled Hungary in 1956, smuggling filmed footage of the anti-Soviet uprising, and settled in the U.S. the next year. Kovacs began his Hollywood career shooting B movies, among them several biker films, which led Dennis Hopper to hire him as cinematographer for Easy Rider. Of the more than 70 movies that Kovacs filmed, his most acclaimed work included photography on director Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), Robert Altman's That Cold Day in the Park (1969), Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon (1973), and Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977). Kovacs was honoured in 2002 with a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers.

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