Oliver Stapleton

Biography

Oliver Stapleton (Oliver David Whiteside Stapleton, born 1948) is a British cinematographer best known for his work with the directors Stephen Frears, Michael Hoffman and Julien Temple. He moved between feature films, music videos and commercials, a path he began following in the early 1980s.

He took a psychology degree at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1970, and later trained at the National Film and Television School in the UK. He spent the years from 1966 to 1974 working in South Africa and England. One of his first projects was Shadowplay, a student short about South African immigrants adjusting to life in London, which he wrote, directed and edited. He then turned to music videos and commercials, working in the early-to-mid 1980s with acts such as a-ha, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Eddy Grant and The Human League. His camerawork on a-ha's "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." earned him an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography in 1986.

For features, his best-known partnerships include Frears on My Beautiful Laundrette and The Grifters, and Hoffman on Restoration. He also worked on The Cider House Rules and Ned Kelly, the latter earning him an AFI Award nomination. Across a long career in film and television, he has built a reputation as a dependable craftsman within contemporary British cinematography.

Key films

• My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
• The Grifters (1990)
• Restoration (1995)
• The Cider House Rules (1999)
• Ned Kelly (2003)