Born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England. An early interest in films led him to work as a projectionist during school vacations. At 16 he dropped out of school to enter the film industry as an unpaid apprentice and later as a clapper boy. He became an assistant cameraman in 1935 and in 1938 began working as a camera operator on "quota quickies." After WW II service as an RAF bomber pilot, he resumed working as an operator, on such films as GREEN FOR DANGER (1946), CAPTAIN BOYCOTT (1947) and OLIVER TWIST (1948), before graduating to lighting cameraman. He soon established himself as one of Britain's leading cinematographers, widely respected througout the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. He worked on several of John Huston's films, achieving extraordinary color effects with light-scattering filters and smoke-filled sets in MOULIN ROUGE (1953) and unusual color and monochrome mixtures in MOBY DICK (1956). Some of his other notable films: BEAT THE DEVIL (1954), HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON and A FAREWELL TO ARMS (both 1956), LOOK BACK IN ANGER (1959), THE ENTERTAINER (1960), THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961), LOLITA (1962), OF HUMAN BONDAGE and THE PUMPKIN EATER (both 1964), THE HILL (1965), THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD and STOP THE WORLD - I WANT TO GET OFF (both 1966), THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1967), GOOD BYE, MR. CHIPS (1969), SCROOGE (1970), SLEUTH (1972), THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975), THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1976), EQUUS (1977), THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER (1981) and THE DARK CRYSTAL (1982).  Nominated for Cinematography 1968: OLIVER!  Cinematography 1971: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF  Nominated for Cinematography 1978: THE WIZ 3 nominations, 1 Award