Vilmos Zsigmond

Cinematographer. Born 16 June 1930 in Szeged, Hungary. Died 1 January 2016.

Title on Fi1m

Born

16 June 1930, Szeged, Hungary

Died

1 January 2016

Biography

Vilmos Zsigmond was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. Born in Szeged, Hungary, on 16 June 1930, he studied cinematography at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest. He emigrated to the United States in 1957 after filming the Hungarian Revolution with fellow student László Kovács.

Zsigmond shot Deliverance (1972), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and The Deer Hunter (1978), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography. He worked regularly with directors including Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Michael Cimino and Woody Allen. He received further Oscar nominations for The River (1984) and The Black Dahlia (2006). Zsigmond died on 1 January 2016.

Compiled from published sources (nytimes.com, en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com) · 15 September 2026How we write and check

Films and series

Beyond what we have reviewed, Vilmos Zsigmond is known for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Deliverance (1972), Maverick (1994), Assassins (1995), Blow Out (1981), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), The Black Dahlia (2006) and Timeline (2003).

The Deer Hunter

1978 · Cinematography