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'Leo Fuchs (Hollywood Photographer)

Leo Fuchs (1929 - 2008) is a veteran Hollywood Photographer and Film Producer. Fuchs spent 20 years (1944 -1965) shooting some of the most moving and memorable images of ‘50s and ‘60s film icons.

He had a major retrospective at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles in 2001. "Shooting Stars: Photographs by Leo Fuchs," included photographs taken on and off the sets of such legendary films as “Exodus," "To Kill a Mockingbird," “The Nun's Story,” “Cape Fear,” and “Lover Come Back.”

With the support of his dear friend Cary Grant, Fuchs left photography behind in 1964 and spent the next 20 years as a motion picture producer.

Early Life
Leo Fuchs was born in Vienna to a family of pastry chefs in 1929, and emigrated to New York with his family in 1939. He sold his first picture (of Eleanor Roosevelt) for $5 when he was barely a teenager, then quit school at 14 to apprentice at Globe Photos in New York. He struck out on his own two years later, working in Broadway nightclubs and as a glamour photographer for newspapers and magazines. After serving as a Signal Corps cameraman in Germany in the early '50s, Fuchs stayed in Europe and was hired as a still photographer on his first film, “Magic Fire,” directed by William Dieterle.

Photography Career
Leo Fuchs is a Hollywood veteran who shot some of the most moving and memorable images of 50s and 60s film icons ever made. Fuchs' introduction to moviemaking came as one of the world's leading "special photographers" on movie sets in Europe and North America.

Starting as a freelance magazine photographer, he was one of the rare “outsiders” invited onto movie sets and left to his own devises to befriend movie stars and get candid shots both during shooting, and after hours while socializing with the stars. The resulting photographs, both intimate and immediate in their appeal, were then syndicated to magazines the world over. His sensitive and dramatic photographic essays of filmmaking appeared in such venerable publications as Life, Look, Paris Match, Bunte.

Many Hollywood icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Sean Connery, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and Cary Grant, as well as such legendary directors as Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Fred Zinnemann were all captured by Fuchs’ camera.

Rock Hudson was actually responsible for Fuchs’ coming to Hollywood to work directly for the studios. While working in Rome with Hudson on “Come September,” Fuchs received a telegram from the head of publicity at [|Universal] inviting him to California to work on 'Lover Come Back,” Hudson and Doris Day’s sequel to “Pillow Talk.” Fuchs moved to Hollywood in 1961, where he photographed most Universal films made between 1961 and 1965, including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Cape Fear,” “40 Pounds of Trouble,” “Strange Bedfellows” and “Bedtime Story.” He also covered all of the Rock Hudson/Doris Day films for Universal, and directed and shot special advertising art as well.

As matter of courtesy, Fuchs would always show the actors his photographs before he sent them to his agent, resulting in an enormous amount of respect being built up between the photographer and his star subjects. Quite simply, the actors trusted him. The excellent working relationship Fuchs created can be seen clearly in the intimacy of his photographs.

Producing Career
In l964, Universal Studios president [|Edward Muhl] persuaded the affable and cultured Fuchs to become a film producer. His first venture in his new role was producing “Gambit” starring Shirley MacLaine and hot British import Michael Caine. He went on to produce a total of 14 films in Hollywood and Europe, including “The Secret War of Harry Frigg” starring Paul Newman, “Le Mouton Enrage” (“Love at the Top”) featuring Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin, and “A Fine Pair” with Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale.

As every picture tells a story, a book of the master photographer’s work is due out in 2004. And as Fuchs has a story for every one of his pictures, it promises to be a very close look indeed at an exceptional time in Hollywood history.

Legacy
His son, Alexandre Fuchs, is also a photographer, producer, and entrepreneur, residing in New York.

Notable Credits
To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962

The Ugly American, 1962

Cape Fear, 1962

''Father Goose. 1963''

''The Victors. 1962''

''The Nun's Story. 1957''

''The Spiral Road. 1961''

Irma La Douce". 1962

40 Pounds of Trouble, 1962

Strange Bedfellows, 1965

Bedtime Story.,1964

Come September, 1961

Lover Come Back, 1961

Books
Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer from the Golden Age of Hollywood