Briton prepares for Oscar glory

LOS ANGELES, U.S. -- One person assured of a prize at the Oscars is a British cinematographer who Marilyn Monroe once described as "the best in the world."

Jack Cardiff is being honoured at Sunday's glittering ceremony with a lifetime achievement award.

Cardiff, 86, has guided the photography on 70 films and worked on many more -- occasionally as director or in his youth as an actor.

The cinema legend has previously been nominated for four Oscars and won one in 1947 for his work on Black Narcissus.

Classic movies on which he worked include The African Queen, The Diary Of Anne Frank, The Red Shoes and War And Peace, for which he earned one of his Oscar nominations.

Born to travelling music hall performers, he spent his childhood moving from town to town, which disrupted his education, although he developed a strong interest in painting.

By the age of 18, Cardiff was working on silent films at Elstree Studios, near London, and worked his way through a variety of production roles such as runner, clapper boy, then camera operator.

His abilities led to him being recruited to work as a technician with the American Technocolor Company which had set up in Britain.

He operated the camera on the UK's first colour film, Wings Of The Morning, in 1937.

His big break came after he achieved a difficult task in lighting scenes for The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, later infusing each film on which he worked with his unique visual style.

By the late Fifties he was also directing, and received an Oscar nomination for his rendition of Sons And Lovers in 1960.

The cult classic Girl On A Motorcycle was another of his as he spent much of the Sixties making his own films.

He returned to work as a cinematographer in the Seventies with films like Death On The Nile and later working on action movies like Conan The Destroyer, The Dogs Of War and Rambo.

After a lengthy break during the past decade he returned to the camera for the First World War drama, The Dance Of Shiva.

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The 73rd Annual Academy Awards
Jack Cardiff

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