`Star Wars` cinematographer Gilbert Taylor dies

London: Famous British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who was behind Hollywood classics like first `Star Wars`, `Dr Strangelove` and `Repulsion`, has died. He was 99. Taylor passed away at his home on the Isle of Wight, reported the Guardian. The cinematographer is particularly known for his work on George Lucas` first `Star Wars` movie though he worked with some of the biggest names in cinema including directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. "George avoided all meetings and contact with me from day one. So I read the extra-long script many times and made my own decisions as to how I would shoot the picture," Taylor had said in an interview to American Cinematographer magazine. His other notable films include `Ice Cold in Alex`, the Beatles` film `A Hard Day`s Night`, Hitchcock`s `Frenzy` and Roman Polanski`s `Repulsion`. He retired from film work in 1994. His career in the film industry started in 1929 when he was still a teenager and was taken on as a camera assistant at Gainsborough Studios in London. He turned down a Bond film in order to work with Roman Polanski, according to his wife Dee. He met Dee, 23 years her junior on the set of `The Punch` and `Judy Man` in 1963 and they married four years later. He spent six years working with Royal Air Force during the second world war, where turned his skills to shooting night-time raids over Germany after a request from Winston Churchill. PTI