James Glennon(1942-2006)
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
American cinematographer and something of a Renaissance man. The son of
famed cinematographer Bert Glennon, James Glennon and his brothers learned
photography at their father's feet. (Their mother was script supervisor
Mary Coleman.) James Glennon began work in the Warner Bros. mail room, where
he often was assigned to make deliveries to studio head Jack L. Warner because
the other mail clerks were afraid of Warner. Warner advised Glennon to
buy a motion picture camera and rent it out, offering his own services
for free. Glennon did so, and thus initiated his career as a
cinematographer with Jaws of Death (1977). He continued to work as a camera operator
on other cinematographers' films, including The Conversation (1974), Ordinary People (1980), and
Altered States (1980), before coming to notice as cinematographer on the
groundbreaking El Norte (1983). He worked steadily thereafter. He filmed
My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985), the story of the actor his own father had photographed in four
films. He partnered with director Alexander Payne on three films: Citizen Ruth (1996),
Election (1999), and About Schmidt (2002). He won an Emmy Award in 2005 for an episode of
Deadwood (2004), the Western series for which he was principal cinematographer
for its entire run. He had widely varied interests. He served
repeatedly as a judge in the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He operated Malibu Water
Resources, a water aeration program, and he farmed clams in the Pacific
Northwest. He was extraordinarily beloved of his crews and casts for
his eternal optimism and unstinting praise and encouragement. He died
unexpectedly on October 19, 2006, from a blood clot resulting from
surgery for prostate cancer.
