Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Christopher Challis

Cinematographer

Born - 18 March 1919, Kensington, London, England
Died - 31 May 2012

One of Britain's most distinguished cinematographers over a 40-year period. Working behind the scenes in British films from his teens, Challis shot scenes for The Drum (1938), before becoming a cameraman with the RAF during WW2. On his return, he worked with Jack Cardiff on films by Michael Powell (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes), and registered his first solo credit with The End of the River (1947). Subsequent films include The Small Back Room (1948), The Tales of Hoffman (1951, staggeringly shot in Technicolor), Genevieve (1953), Quentin Durward (1955), Windom's Way (1957), The Captain's Table (1959), HMS Defiant (1962), A Shot in the Dark (1964), Kaleidoscope (1966), Chitty Chitty bang Bang (1968), Villain (1971), The Little Prince (1974), The Deep (1977), The Mirror Crack'd (1980), Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Steaming (1985), his last. His work should have merited more awards than it got, but he did win a Bafta for his work on Stanley Donen's Arabesque in 1966.