America's so-called Golden Age of Hollywood gave rise to a pandemic obsession with the stars. Magazines like Life and Look fed that fascination, providing a home for documentary photography and behind-the-scenes portraits of Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, etc. During this era, a new kind of documentarian emerged: the Hollywood still photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Willoughby and Eva Marie Saint on the set of "Raintree County," 1957 (Copyright 1978 Bob Willoughby/MPTV)
Bob Willoughby was one of the best-known film photographers — recognized by magazines and Hollywood alike. During his 20 years in the industry, his work was never out of print for even one week. He died this month at age 82.
All photos © 1978 Bob Willoughby/MPTV
Born in Los Angeles in 1927, Willoughby studied cinema at the University of Southern California and design with Saul Bass at the Kann Institute of Art. His career began in New York, where he photographed performing jazz musicians, and his first magazine assignment came in the early 1950s for Harper's Bazaar.
It wasn't long before Willoughby was discovered by film studios; in 1954, Warner Brothers hired him to photograph Judy Garland in the final number of the film A Star Is Born. The studio was happy to have the publicity, the magazines were happy to have the candid photos, and Willoughby was happy to have his first magazine cover. Thus began a 20-year collaboration.
Through the years, Willoughby worked on innumerable film sets such as My Fair Lady, The Graduate and Catch-22. He developed close relationships with actors and actresses like Audrey Hepburn, and directors like George Cukor. And he presented a Hollywood that had previously never been seen: a director demonstrating a scene, an actress laughing, the crew behind the scenes.
Willoughby's archives are a celebration of American film, showing not only a love of cinema, but also a mastery of his craft. He devised a number of technical innovations to advance his type of set photography: He financed the first successful sound blimp to reduce shutter noise and used radio-controlled cameras to get unprecedented access on the set.
He died Dec. 18 at his home in Vence, France. According to The New York Times, the cause was cancer. But Willoughby's Hollywood lives on. You can see more of his iconic photographs — as well as some personal work — on his Flickr stream:
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