American Cinematographer - January 2021 - 72

Above: Chapman shooting Six Days,
Seven Nights. Opposite, clockwise
from left: Chapman working on
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
and Raging Bull, and serving as
camera operator on Jaws for
Bill Butler, ASC.

" I'm glad I got into the
business when I did,
because I think the job
I did is disappearing
somewhat. "

72 / JANUARY 2021

Michael Chapman, ASC, whose
honors included Academy Award
nominations for Raging Bull and
The Fugitive, died Sept. 20 at the
age of 84.
An influential figure in the New
Hollywood that emerged in the
1970s, Chapman shot more than
40 features over the course of
his career, among them The Last
Detail, Taxi Driver, Invasion of the
Body Snatchers, The Last Waltz
and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
He also tried his hand at directing with the features The Clan
of the Cave Bear, All the Right
Moves and The Viking Sagas
(which he also wrote).
Born in New York, N.Y., on Nov.
21, 1935, Chapman was raised in
Wellesley, Mass. As a youth, he
was keenly interested in sports.
" I was certainly as passionate
about movies as any other kid in
Wellesley, but it never occurred
to me that I could go get a job

in that business, " he told AC in
2003, when he was honored with
the ASC Lifetime Achievement
Award. " It was a whole other
world to me. "
After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in
liberal arts, Chapman went to
work as a freight brakeman on
the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. " It
was a very chic thing to do in the
late '50s - echoes of Kerouac
and Ginsberg, " he noted dryly.
The U.S. Army soon put an end to
his railroad career. " Fortunately, it
was after Korea and before Vietnam, so I managed to get out of
the Army without having to shoot
at anybody. "
Following an honorable
discharge, Chapman married
a Columbia classmate whose
father, Joseph C. Brun, ASC,
happened to be an Oscar-nominated cinematographer. " He
was a wonderful guy, " Chapman

recalled, " but he was scandalized that his daughter should be
married to a freight brakeman, so
he got me into the [camera] guild.
I started out loading magazines
on commercials. There were very
few features being shot in New
York at that time. "
Working his way up the ranks
to assistant, Chapman landed at
commercial house MPO Videotronics, where he connected with
cinematographer and future ASC
member Gordon Willis. " Gordy
was offered a feature, and [his
regular operator] foolishly turned
the job down, so Gordy asked
me, and I changed my card from
assistant in a second. Then Gordy
took me along for an amazing
ride. "
Chapman subsequently operated for Willis on Hal Ashby's
The Landlord, Alan Arkin's Little
Murders, Alan Pakula's Klute, and
Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.
" I'd always been a good athlete,
and there's a lot of athleticism in
operating a camera, " Chapman said. " That's what makes
operating so wonderful and
seductive and exhilarating to do.
It's wonderful fun, it's sexy and it's
gratifying. "
When Chapman decided he
was ready to move up to cinematographer, " I didn't really lobby
to shoot anything, " he recalled. " I
just hoped an opportunity would
come along the way the chance
to operate had. " That's just what
happened: Ashby began to prep
The Last Detail, and he asked
Chapman to shoot it. " Hal was
really good, and he made some
wonderful films, " noted Chapman.
" He's one of the '70s directors
that people don't talk about
enough. "
With the feature The White

CHAPMAN PORTRAIT BY OWEN ROIZMAN, ASC.
ALL OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ASC ARCHIVES.

In Memoriam
Michael Chapman, ASC (1935-2020)
American Cinematographer - January 2021

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