Tak Fujimoto

Japanese-American director of photography Tak Fujimoto may have held a degree from the London film school, but his acceptance into the clannish, inbred American Society of Cinematographers was a hard-won victory. He worked as assistant to Haskell Wexler in television, then worked the "B"-picture circuit through the auspices of Roger Corman alumnus Jonathan Demme. His first full director-of-photography credit was for director Terence Malick's Badlands (1973); later on, he was one of a battalion of camera operators on George Lucas's Star Wars (1977). Since that time, Tak Fujimoto has ascended to the top of his profession, with such award-winners to his credit as Melvin and Howard (1980), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Philadelphia (1993), not to mention such pure-and-simple entertainments as Swing Shift (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). He has also worked on several TV movies, including Seduced (1985) and Cast the First Stone (1990). Tak Fujimoto is decidedly not to be confused with actress Taki Fujimoto. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide