British cinematographer and Santa Monica resident Roger Deakins has been knighted for services to film in the New Year Honours.
The 71-year-old, originally from Devon who now lives in the Ocean Park neighborhood, counts A Beautiful Mind, Fargo, The Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 among his best-known features, the last two winning him Oscars.
He modestly said, after his first Oscar win in 2018, the secret of his success was “I really love my job”.
He was previously appointed CBE in 2013.
Sir Roger, from Torquay, found notoriety for his lack of success at the Oscars after receiving 13 nominations – the first in 1994 for The Shawshank Redemption – but no wins.
He finally won the coveted statuette in 2018 for Blade Runner 2049, returning to the ceremony’s stage in 2020 to collect a gong for 1917.
This was many years after he was turned down by the National Film School.
A keen photographer, he applied to the school but failed to secure a place at first as his photography was reportedly considered not “filmic” enough.
After later being admitted, he worked as a cameraman on documentaries, moving on to music projects in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1991, he began a long-term collaboration with the Coen brothers, including working on 11 movies, including O Brother, Where Art Thou? and True Grit.
Another long-term relationship was with Sir Sam Mendes and included working on the James Bond film Skyfall.
Their complex World War One film 1917 saw their partnership most challenged as it was shot as if in a few long continuous takes.
Sir Roger said of this: “With those long takes, when you get towards the end you think ‘it’s really fast and am I going to get that right?’ and the pressure was pretty extreme really.”
