Winner of three Oscars, English cinematographer Freddie Young (full name Frederick Archibald Young) was born on October 9, 1902 in London. At the age of 14, he had to leave school and earn money to help his family. After a short work in a military factory, in 1917, fifteen-year-old Young got a job at the film studio Gaumont. For many years, Young was engaged in a variety of support positions, worked in the laboratory of the film studio, assistant operator. Young’s first independent camera work dates
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Winner of three Oscars, English cinematographer Freddie Young (full name Frederick Archibald Young) was born on October 9, 1902 in London. At the age of 14, he had to leave school and earn money to help his family. After a short work in a military factory, in 1917, fifteen-year-old Young got a job at the film studio Gaumont. For many years, Young was engaged in a variety of support positions, worked in the laboratory of the film studio, assistant operator. Young’s first independent camera work dates back to the late twenties, and in the next decade he already worked closely with director and producer Herbert Wilcox, participating in the creation of his paintings “Good Night Vienna!” (1932), “Bittersweet” (1933, according to the script of Noel Coward), “Nell Gwyn” (1934), “Great Victoria” (1937), “Sixty Famous Years” (1938). The finale of “Great Victoria” was Young’s first work in color. Among his early films, one can also mention the Sam Wood drama Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), starring Robert Donat. During World War II, Young served in a special army unit commissioned by the Department of Defense to produce training war films. During the war, Young was practically not engaged in art cinema, and Michael Powell's films Smuggling (1940), Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941), and Carol Reed's Young Mr. Pitt (1942) were only rare exceptions. After the war, for fifteen years he was the chief cameraman at MGM, becoming one of the most respected specialists in his field. In addition to his countrymen, Young also worked with American directors George Cukor, John Ford and Vincent Minnelli. In 1953, he was first nominated for an Oscar for his cinematography in Richard Thorpe's Ivanhoe (1952). Young’s talent during this period was most clearly manifested in the film “The Passion for Life” (1956) directed by Vincent Minnelli, dedicated to the life of Van Gogh, in which he managed to convey the entire palette of works of the famous painter with extraordinary expressiveness. Over time, Young could afford to pursue his dream of becoming a freelance filmmaker without having to sign long-term contracts with big companies. In the sixties, his fruitful cooperation with the famous English director David Lean began - the epic adventure drama Lawrence of Arabia, released in 1962, brought Young, who has already turned sixty, his first Oscar. Her other two films, Dr. Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970), which Young starred in, also won an Oscar for cinematography. Working with Lin, Young proved himself not only as a master of large-scale spectacular scenes, but also as a magnificent landscape artist, reproducing on the screen unforgettable giant natural landscapes. Special mention deserves and virtuoso shot his scenes of air combat film Guy Hamilton "Battle of Britain" (1969). In 1970 he was awarded the rank of officer of the British Empire. Having set high technical standards in British cinema, Freddie Young became a mentor for the next generations of cinematographers. His students include Jack Cardiff, Freddie Francis and director Nicholas Roeg. He continued to work, albeit less actively, in film and television until the mid-eighties. In 1982, he directed the television film Arthur's Sacred Land, his first and only directorial work. Shortly before his death, Young published a memoir, Seventy Light Years: A Life in Movies. He died in London on 1 December 1998.