Biography
Robert Paynter was an English cinematographer. Born in south London in 1928, he left school at 15 and began as a camera trainee with the Central Office of Information’s Colonial Film Unit, later working as a cameraman on short information films.
He collaborated extensively with director Michael Winner on ten films between 1969 and 1984, including Lawman (1971), The Nightcomers (1971) and The Big Sleep (1978). From 1980 he worked with John Landis on five projects: An American Werewolf in London (1981), Trading Places (1983), the Michael Jackson video Thriller (1983), Into the Night (1985) and Spies Like Us (1985). He also served as director of photography on Superman II (1980) and Superman III (1983). Paynter appeared in cameos in several Landis films and retired in the early 1990s. He died on the Isle of Wight in 2010, aged 82.
