March / 1999

FREDDIE YOUNG: Epic Cinematographer
“He is an artist, a master craftsman and a very gentle man”

In her President’s Report last month, Joan Hutton csc wrote: “Wrapping what was surely one of the greatest careers in the history of cinematography, legendary DOP F.A. (Freddie) Young bsc asc passed away in London on Dec. 1 at the age of 96.” Noting Young’s three Oscars among his hundreds of credits and awards, Joan promised a full tribute in the CSC News. This month we are pleased to publish the profile written by John Willis for the BSC Newsletter, along with excerpts from a couple of London newspapers.

Sir David Lean once wrote: “There is one more strenuous job than the director, the cameraman. Freddie Young has the stamina of an ox and a knowledge of the movies which has been more than useful to one or two so-called directors.”

Sadly, that energy and expertise was extinguished just before Christmas, 1998. The entertainment industry lost a long-serving talent and the British Society of Cinematographers lost its first-ever president, who was still promoting its interests right up until the time he died. He was 96.

Frederick Archibald Young was born in Marylebone on October 9, 1902, to Henry and Anne Young. He was the seventh of eight children and left school at 14 to help support the family.

As a young boy, he was a more than useful footballer and boxer, but it was the box Brownie camera that really fuelled his imagination and after a brief spell in a munitions factory he got a job as a tea boy at Gaumont Studios in Shepherds Bush in 1917, which meant trying his hand at everything from sweeping the laboratory floor to developing and cutting film and turning the camera by hand.

In 1918, he developed and hand-printed all 6,000 feet of The Man in the Moon, the first British science fiction film.

As second cameraman, he photographed The Flag Lieutenant in 1926 and The Somme, but his first film as DOP was Victory, shot at Worton Hall Studio, Isleworth, in 1927.

Freddie Young’s work and reputation brought him to the attention of Herbert Wilcox and throughout the 1930s he became the producer’s principal cameraman, forming a formidable partnership at British and Dominion Studios. His initial effort for Wilcox on A Peep Behind The Scenes led to photographing a number of films involving Anna Neagle, Wilcox’s wife. Among them were Nell Gwynn in 1934, Victoria the Great in 1937 and Sixty Glorious Years the following year.

He also photographed Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet in 1933 and Goodbye Mr Chips with Robert Donat in 1939, as well as honing his skills on such films as White Cargo (1929), Canaries Sometimes Sing (1930), Rookery Nook (1930), London Melody (1937) . . . the list is prodigious.

Freddie’s partnership with Herbert Wilcox ended at the beginning of the war when he returned from Hollywood after photographing Nurse Edith Cavell with Anna Neagle for RKO. Back in England he joined the Army Kinematograph Service, gaining the rank of captain.

He photographed 49th Parallel for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1941 and Carol Reed’s Young Mr Pitt a year later. Also during the war years, he spent time directing as well as photographing several army training films.

After the war, Freddie consolidated his position as one of the British film industry’s major talents when he spent 15 years as chief cameraman at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, working with directors of the calibre of John Ford, Vincente Minnelli, King Vidor and George Cukor; and stars of the calibre of Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Gene Kelly, and so on.
___________________________

‘Young’s artistry was apparent
to anyone who saw his work’
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He was nominated for an Oscar for the first time for Ivanhoe in 1952.

As well as working on distinguished films with major craftsmen, Freddie also nurtured such camera talents as Jack Cardiff, Freddie Francis, Jack Hildyard, Skeets Kelly and Nicholas Roeg, to name but some who served an apprenticeship with him, benefited from his wisdom and helped further the reputation of the British camera technician.

At an age when many would be considering easing their way towards retirement, Freddie left MGM to freelance. Thus began the greatest period of his working life, including a long-standing relationship with David Lean.

Their collaboration was consolidated when Freddie Young was already 60 years old and it was a partnership that earned him Academy Awards for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Ryan’s Daughter.

“I loved working with David,” said Freddie, “because he was 100 per cent behind me whatever I would try to do pictorially.”

If Freddie Young had lit no other motion picture, he will always be remembered for the 1,000 feet of 70mm film which introduced Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. However, in his freelance days he also chalked up notable successes with films like Indiscreet, Lord Jim, Nicholas and Alexandra, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar, The Battle of Britain and the Bond film You Only Live Twice.

In his book about the filming of The Battle of Britain, respected author and film critic Leonard Mosley admiringly says of Freddie: “In 1967 he celebrated his fiftieth anniversary as a cameraman and practically every star director and producer within flying distance, from Elsie Randolph to Ava Gardner, from Peter O’Toole to Sean Connery, from Herbert Wilcox to David Lean, from Sam Spiegel to Harry Saltzman, came to wish him well. He has worked with most of the great stars and nearly all the great directors and there are very few who don’t love him, for he is an artist, a master craftsman and a very gentle man.”

In his long career he did much to improve the status of the cinematographer on films made in Britain. When the British Society of Cinematographers was formed 50 years ago, he was elected its first president. In 1972 he published The Work of the Motion Picture Cameraman.

In 1970 he was appointed OBE.

Another honour he was proud to accept was the American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award which he received in 1993. He also received an honorary doctorate of the Royal College of Art the following year and in 1997 was awarded the Royal Photographic Society of Britain’s Gold Centenary Medal.

Young’s tremendous achievements as a cinematographer undoubtedly retarded his career as a director, but in 1985 David Puttnam gave him the opportunity to direct his first feature film, Arthur’s Hallowed Ground.

In retirement he concentrated on painting, and his home in Roehampton featured many of his efforts.

Freddie was first married in 1927 to Marjorie Gaffney; they had a son and a daughter. She died in 1963. The next year he married Joan Morduch, whom he met when she was an assistant cutter on Lord Jim. She survives him with their son, David.—John Willis, January, 1999.

EDITOR’S NOTES:
* Freddie Young’s memoirs, called Seventy Light Years, A Life in Movies, were published by Faber and Faber last month.
* English-born Ian Matheson csc of Almonte, Ont., who died in hospital last October at the age of 81, started his film career in 1937 as a clapper boy for Young on Victoria the Great. In 1938, he was part of Young’s crew for the filming of Goodbye Mr Chips.
* Clips from obituaries in London newspapers:

“Young’s artistry was apparent to anyone who saw his work, perhaps most notably in Lawrence of Arabia, which contains one of the greatest shots in cinema, that in which Peter O’Toole and his guide gaze at a figure slowly emerging from the heat haze of the desert. The shot lasts for three minutes. Young got it in one take.”

“He . . . had mixed feelings about directors: ‘Those limelight hogs think they’re God. Vincente Minelli interfered with everything. George Cukor talked for hours to the actors. But nice chaps. Gentlemen.’”

“‘I got on very well with David (Lean), but he was inclined to take credit for everything. Oh, he’d pat me on the back, give me a hug, but he seldom divulged my contributions to the world.’”

-END-

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