JACK CARDIFF

1960

With Marilyn Monroe [1956]

Born: 18 September 1914, Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK, as John G.J. Gran. Changed his name legally to Cardiff, his father's stage name.

Career: Entered film industry as a child star. In 1928 he got a job as tea boy and runner at British International Studios in Elstree. Became clapper boy for doph Claude Friese-Greene, a.o. 'I was working in the special effects department with Alex Korda's company at Denham Studios. Hal Rosson had come over from the Sates, and the studio manager asked if I wanted to operate for him. Hal was firing a lot of operators, so I said no. But finally I was the only one left, and I accepted the job.' Became Technicolor consultant in 1937 and ph a half-dozen theatrical commercials [for Cadbury, 1939, a.o.] and a series of Technicolor theatrical travelogues called 'World Window Productions/Fascinating Journeys' [*]. 'Jack had been Technicolor's brightest technician and their star demonstration cameraman for years. Like the other brilliant cameramen sponsored by Technicolor, he had been right through the plant, studying first the theory, and then the practice of the Technicolor dye-process colour system. [...] Naturally, Jack, as Technicolor's star technician, was in early on the discussions about 'A Matter of Life and Death' and the trick effects which depended on going from full colour in one world to monochrome in another, and back again. Gradually, I realized that I had to have Jack, or someone as inventive and experienced as Jack, throughout the picture.' [Michael Powell in 'A Life in Movies'.] In 1942 he started work on a two-year doc ['Western Approaches'] about the British Merchant Navy. In mid-career he turned to directing.

Wrote his autobiography, 'Magic Hour - A Life in Film', in 1996. Justin Bowyer wrote the book 'Conversations with Jack Cardiff: Art, Light and Direction in Cinema' [2003]. Was member [later honorary member] of the BSC. Was member of the ASC. Was honorary member of the JSC. Was Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society [FRPS]. Was awarded the Order of the British Empire [OBE] in 2000. Was patron of the Brighton Film School & Studio.

Appearances/Interviewee: 'Sean O'Casey: The Spirit of Ireland' [1965, Albert & David Maysles; on the making of 'Young Cassidy'], 'Korda - 'I Don't Grow on Trees' [1993, Peter Sasdy; doc for BBC-tv 'Omnibus'-series], 'The Little Picture Show' [Sep 1994; series for Carlton-tv], 'A Matter of Michael & Emeric' [1997, Dario Poloni], 'Glorious Technicolor' [1998, Peter Jones], 'Behind the Camera' [1999; for BBC-tv], 'A Profile of 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' [2000; ph: Ric Clark & Nish Patel], 'A Profile of 'The Red Shoes'' [2000; ph: Ric Clark & Nish Patel], 'A Profile of Black Narcissus' [2000; ph: Graham Day & Nish Patel], 'Larry and Vivien: The Oliviers in Love' [2001, James Kent; 90m], 'Open House with Gloria Hunniford' [March & April 2001; chat show for Channel 5], 'We Get to Win This Time' [2002, Ian Haufrect; on the making of 'Rambo: First Blood Part II'], 'The Prince, the Showgirl and Me' [2003, Claire Beavan; ph: Luke Cardiff], 'The Adventures of Errol Flynn' [2004, David Heeley; ph: Mark Zavad], 'Persistence of Vision: The Life and Work of Cinematographer Jack Cardiff' [2004, Craig McCall; 90m; extracts from this doc were shown in 1999 ('Persistence of Vision: An Exploration of the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff', 30m) and 2000 ('The Colour Merchant' & 'Painting with Light', 27m)] & 'Silent Britain' [2006, David Thompson; ph: Louis Caulfield; for BBC-tv; 90m].

Awards: As doph: 'Oscar' AA [1947; color] & Golden Globe Award [1948] for 'Black Narcissus'; BSC Award [1956] & 'Oscar' AA nom [1956; color] for 'War and Peace'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1961; color] for 'Fanny'; BAFTA TV Award nom [1985] for 'The Far Pavilions'; BSC Lifetime Achievement Award [1994]; ASC International Achievement Award [1994]; Honorary 'Oscar' AA [2000].

As dir: NYFCC Award [1960], 'Oscar' AA nom [1960], Golden Globe Award [1961] & Directors Guild of America Award nom [1961] for 'Sons and Lovers'.

1996

'For his inventions, imagination and sheer audacity, there has never been another colour cameraman like Jack Cardiff. Georges Périnal was the best cameraman I have ever worked with, both in black and white and in colour, but Jack was something apart. The skin textures in the close-ups of 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' would have delighted Fragonard, but Jack's lighting and composition in 'Black Narcissus' and 'The Red Shoes' would have infuriated Delacroix, because he couldn't have done any better himself, in imagination or in chiaroscuro.' [Michael Powell in 'A Life in Movies', 1986.]

'Good photographer, so-so director. Beyond that description, there are moments of inspiration in 'Sons and Lovers' and 'Young Cassidy', and a few flashes of inspired colour poetry in 'The Girl on a Motorcycle'. The rest of Cardiff's directions aren't really worth bothering with - even 'The Liquidator' which should have been something gets bogged down in unfunny schizophrenic cartoon sequences. But if ever I start collecting frame transparencies from colour films, Cardiff's work would be well on show. That would, though, be unfair as Cardiff's images also move, even in the hands of pedestrian directors. And in better ones they practically glow, whether in menacing fantasies like 'A Matter of Life and Death' or brooding, romantic melodramas like 'Under Capricorn' and 'Black Narcissus'.' [Markku Salmi in 'Film Dope', #6, November 1974.]

Obituary: Jack Cardiff, the cinematographer, who died on April 22 aged 94, was a master of the Technicolor process and created the intoxicating, highly erotic atmosphere of the Powell and Pressburger films 'Black Narcissus' and 'The Red Shoes'.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger – with Cardiff, the composer Brian Easdale and the designer Alfred Junge – took British films into an area of fantasy and romance previously dominated by European expressionism and spangled American spectaculars.

For 'Black Narcissus', Cardiff conjured from studio sets a Himalayan fantasy: a rhapsody of lush jungle, rivers, precipitous snow-capped mountains and blood-orange sunsets that Rumer Godden – author of the original novel – called 'magical' and the saving grace of the film, which was 'otherwise without an atom of truth'.

In 'The Red Shoes' – the story of a ballerina's fatal obsession with her art – Cardiff's fluid camera and bold use of colour created a unity from naturalistic, staged and dream sequences. He had a remarkable gift for telling a story with colours, and used red to striking effect: there is the red dress and lipstick of Kathleen Byron's lovesick nun in 'Black Narcissus', and the red ballet shoes that torment Moira Shearer's ballerina.

Cardiff could find eroticism latent in the most unpromising circumstances, and few were able to light women as he could: his close-ups of burning eyes and moist lips revealed passionate depths in such demure actresses as Deborah Kerr and Kim Hunter.

His work for Powell and Pressburger made him one of the most celebrated of international cinematographers, and he brought elegance and humour to many American films. He worked with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Albert Lewin, Richard Fleischer and Laurence Olivier, on 'The Prince and the Showgirl'. Of this film, Cardiff said: '[Marilyn] Monroe was a manic depressive. Olivier should have got an Oscar for his patience.'

He also survived working with John Huston, for whom he filmed 'The African Queen', a project of celebrated hardship made in colour, with Huston at his most perverse, more interested in hunting than in filming.

For King Vidor, Cardiff filmed the gargantuan battle scenes in the American/Italian production of 'War and Peace', for which he received one of his numerous Oscar nominations. In the event, he won only once, for 'Black Narcissus'.

The son of music hall performers, Jack Cardiff made his film debut at the age of four, and in a subsequent role he played a boy who dies after being run over – his demise took three days to film, a harrowing experience for his parents since his elder brother had died in infancy.

After appearing in a dozen films, Jack's acting career stalled, and he found work as a runner on set. He showed an interest in photography, and by 1935 he was a camera operator on René Clair's 'The Ghost Goes West'. He was fascinated by the new process of Technicolor, on which he quickly became an authority, and was involved in 'Wings of the Morning' [1936], the first Technicolor film to be made in Britain.

During the Second World War Cardiff began his long association with Powell and Pressburger. In 1945 Cardiff was asked by Powell to light and photograph 'A Matter of Life and Death', in which David Niven plays a wartime pilot who, after being killed in a crash, is overlooked by the heavenly messengers sent to collect him; and, since he has developed a profound affection for an American servicewoman [Kim Hunter], is given a second chance after a prolonged heavenly court case. For this film Cardiff contributed memorable trick sequences [time stands still when the heavenly envoy appears] and photographed a grandiose, if chilly, view of the hereafter [vast staircases and antiseptic waiting rooms].

In the 1950s and 60s Cardiff made a prolonged foray into directing. He favoured fantastic or poetic subject matter, with mixed results. For a long time he treasured hopes of filming James Joyce's 'Ulysses', but they were never realised. His other attempt to film internal monologue – 'The Girl on a Motorcycle' – was one of the most unintentionally hilarious films of the decade. Also known as 'Naked Under Leather', it stars Marianne Faithfull as a continental bimbo who leaves her sleeping husband, zips herself into black leather, straddles an enormous motorbike and thrashes off to seek the heartless intellectual [Alain Delon], who alone can satisfy. At a sexual climax induced by her beloved machine, she crashes spectacularly and dies.

Another peculiar venture was 'Scent of Mystery'. Made for that quintessential showman Michael Todd, it was the first film to be presented in Odorama, or Smell-O-Vision, a system that released odours in a cinema so that the audience could 'smell' what was happening on the screen.

More successful was Cardiff's version of 'Sons and Lovers', which won Cardiff a number of critics' awards and was nominated for seven Oscars.

In the 1970s and 80s Cardiff returned to work as a cinematographer of romantic films set in exotic places. He had never taken to the naturalism of dirty fingernails and housing estates, and his rich style could look naive, or even stuffy, alongside the fast cutting and violent images of the video age.

He went over the top once more, with the director Richard Fleischer, on 'Conan the Destroyer' and 'Call from Space'. He also photographed Sylvester Stallone's gleaming torso sweating its way through mud, blood and heavy undergrowth in 'Rambo: First Blood Part II'.

Jack Cardiff published an autobiography, 'Magic Hour' [with a preface by Martin Scorsese], in 1996. He enjoyed painting, and said that the French Impressionists had been a major influence on his work with the camera. [From the telegraph.co.uk website, 24 April 2009.]

Obituary: Kirk Douglas said Jack Cardiff possessed 'the eyes of Chagall'. Lauren Bacall claimed he was the only cameraman who could meet the impossible demands of director John Huston. Cardiff was the cinematographer par excellence. In 2001, at the age of 86, he received a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars, the first technician to be honored so.

Jack Cardiff became a camera operator in the 1930s after stints as a child actor, runner and clapper boy. The movie business was in the family - his cousin was the actress, Kay Kendall. Cardiff was one of an exclusive band who had been invited to learn the Technicolor process.

Cardiff re-wrote the rules of cinematography, bringing a painter's eye to the craft. Indeed, he cited Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh and Caravaggio as inspirations for the light and color of 'Black Narcissus'. He was a painter himself, and portraits of some of the actors with whom he worked have been exhibited.

In Michael Powell's 'The Red Shoes', the 18-minute dance sequence by Moira Shearer, filmed by Cardiff, was described by Martin Scorsese as 'a moving painting'.

Cardiff's great sense of color was also evident in John Huston's 'The African Queen'. Before shooting, Humphrey Bogart told him: 'Listen, kid, you see this face? It's taken me a good few years to get these lines, I don't want you to wash them out with lights.'

He got on well with Bogart and many other stars. He became something of a confidant of Marilyn Monroe. He was drawn both to her beauty and her vulnerability. 'Marilyn never said a nasty word about anyone - she was like a child,' he wrote.

During lunch breaks on the set, he would often ask the leading actress to sit for still photographic portraits. One included a soft focus informal shot of Monroe that became husband Arthur Miller's favorite.

Jack Cardiff went on to work on action location films in the 1970s and 80s which earned popular, rather than critical, acclaim. They included 'Rambo: First Blood Part II'.

Marilyn Monroe once handed him a signed photograph of herself and said: 'Dear Jack, if only I could be the way you have created me.' [From the news.bbc.co.uk website.]

[Standing] 'Oscar' - 1947

Obituary: As a cinematographer, Jack Cardiff was known as 'the man who makes women look beautiful'. Some of the glamorous women whose beauty he accentuated through his lens were Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Anita Ekberg and Marilyn Monroe. In fact, when Monroe was in London to shoot 'The Prince and the Showgirl' with Laurence Olivier in 1956, she said of Cardiff: 'He's the best cameraman in the world, and I've got him."

Cardiff was certainly one of the best colour cinematographers in the world, whose career in that capacity began with the emergence of Technicolor and continued through the golden age of that process. As camera operator on 'Wings of the Morning' [1936], Britain's first three-strip Technicolor film, he became a colour expert and photographed many travelogue shorts as well as being location cameraman on 'The Four Feathers'.

However, his greatest achievement was as the cinematographer on three of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's best films, 'A Matter of Life and Death', 'Black Narcissus', which won him an Oscar, and 'The Red Shoes'. Cardiff's dramatic use of colour played an essential part in the success of these films, if only for the splashes of red - the red rose in the first, the nun Deborah Kerr's hair seen in flashback in the second, and Moira Shearer's hair and shoes in the third. Cardiff's view was that a cameraman is 'the man who paints the movie'.

He kept meticulous notes on the stars. For example: 'Watch Lollo's [Gina Lollobrigida] cheeks, and those lips. A false light and they will film badly.' 'Watch Ava's nose. It has a slight twist and a scar line.' Ava, in turn, told Cardiff: 'Jack, you must light me carefully when I'm having my period.'

Cardiff - whose father was a professional footballer at Watford and then a music-hall comedian, and whose mother was a chorus girl - was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and entered British films as a child actor at the age of four. When he left school at 14, he became a gofer at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, and continued as a camera assistant, working his way up to director of photography. He was with the Crown Film Unit of the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, photographing dangerous war zones.

After the war, he was shooting panoramic seascapes for Albert Lewin's surreal 'Pandora and the Flying Dutchman' in Spain, 'The African Queen' in the Belgian Congo and 'The Barefoot Contessa', for which he captured the sunny, hedonistic essence of the Spanish, Italian and French Riviera locations.

In 1958, Cardiff turned to directing, leaving the photography to others. The best of his decently directed pictures was 'Sons and Lovers', for which Freddie Francis won an Oscar for his black-and-white CinemaScope photography.

In the same year, Cardiff was in charge of a real stinker. 'Scent of Mystery' used the Smell-O-Vision system by which more than 30 different smells, including garlic, oranges, perfume and coffee, were stored in vials which, on an audio cue on the soundtrack, would disperse throughout the theatre.

After taking two years to develop a script of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' for Jerry Wald at Fox, and having it rejected, he took on 'The Lion' [1961]. It had some spectacular location photography [by Ted Scaife] of Mount Kenya and the flora and fauna of Africa, though the tug-of-love plot was rather feeble.

More interesting than such action films as 'The Liquidator' and 'The Mercenaries' was 'The Girl on a Motorcycle', which Cardiff both directed and co-photographed.

Cardiff then decided to return to cinematography alone, explaining: 'I lacked the guts and the bullshit necessary to make more films as director... I used to get what I wanted more often than not, but I didn't have enough ego to demand it.' Again in exotic climes, he showed his versatility as director of photography in 'Death on the Nile', 'Conan the Destroyer' and 'Rambo: First Blood Part II' - a long way from the glory days of Powell and Pressburger.

In the late 1980s, Cardiff, who had lived for a while in a mountain retreat in Switzerland, retired to a house in Saffron Walden, Essex, with his third wife, the script consultant Niki O'Donahue. In 1994, he was honoured by the American Society of Cinematographers with its International Achievement Award; in 2000 he was appointed OBE and in 2001 he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his contribution to the cinema - not bad for someone who claimed never to have understood the techniques of the camera. He is survived by Niki and by four sons. [From obituary by Ronald Bergan on the guardian.co.uk website, 23 April 2009.]

1934 David Copperfield/The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observations of David Copperfield,

the Younger [George Cukor] b&w; ph tests of actor Freddie Bartholomew; ph: Oliver T. Marsh

1936 The Man Who Could Work Miracles [Lothar Mendes] b&w; sfx ph (+ uncred co-c.op); ph: Harold Rosson

1937 The Eternal Fire/La montagna di fuoco [Pietro Francisci & Hans M. Nieter] c; doc/9m*

1938 Fox Hunting in the Roman Campagna/La caccia alla volpe nella campagna Romana [Alessandro Blasetti] c;

1939 Main Street of Paris/Paris on the Seine/Paris vu de la Seine [Jean-Claude Bernard] c; doc/25m; asst

1941 Plastic Surgery in Wartime [Frank Sainsbury] c; doc/25m; not shown in Britain

1942 Out of the Box [Terence Bishop] b&w; doc/11m; cph: Cyril Jenkins; for Scottish Co-Operative Wholesale Society

1942 This Is Colour [Jack Cardiff & (assoc) Jack Ellitt] c; comm doc/16m; for ICI

1942 The Great Mr. Handel [Norman Walker] c; cph: Claude Friese-Greene; + Technicolor cons; 2 extracts (re-edited +

new footage), 'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth' (d: J.B. Sloan & Duncan Spence; ph: W.P. Vinten; 20m) & 'Christmas

Chorale' (d: J.B. Sloan & Duncan Spence; ph: W.P. Vinten; 25m) were released separately in 1952 & 1953

1942 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp/The Adventures of Colonel Blimp/Colonel Blimp [Michael Powell & Emeric

1942 Western Approaches/The Raider [Pat Jackson] c; doc/83m; cph: Eric Asbury, Denny Densham, Edwin Catford,

Geoffrey Unsworth, C.M. Pennington-Richards & Edward Scaife; prod Crown Film Unit

1944 Caesar and Cleopatra [Gabriel Pascal] c; ext ph Egypt; ph: Freddie Young, Robert Krasker & Jack Hildyard

1945 A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven [Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger] b&w-c; spec pfx: Stanley

Grant; Erwin Hillier was scheduled as cph, but couldn't accept a shared credit and left the prod

1946 The White Cockade [Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger] one seq was shot, but film was never realized

1946 Black Narcissus [Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger] c; process ph: W. Percy Day

1946 Montmartre en couleur vu par Technicolor [Jean-Claude Bernard] c; doc/18m

1947 The Red Shoes [Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger] c; spec pfx: F. George Gunn & E. Hague

1947 Scott of the Antarctic [Charles Frend] c; cph: Geoffrey Unsworth; loc ph: Osmond Borradaile

1948 Under Capricorn [Alfred Hitchcock] c; cph (operators of camera movement): Paul Beeson, Ian Craig, Jack Haste &

1951 The African Queen [John Huston] c; 2uc: Ted Scaife; sfx ph: Cliff Richardson

1953 Crossed Swords/Il maestro di Don Giovanni [Milton Krims & (uncred) Vittorio Vassarotti] c

[Pointing] directing "William Tell"

1953 William Tell [Jack Cardiff] cs/c; unfinished (about 30m of edited footage exist: 'The Story of William Tell')

1957 India: Introduction to Its History [prod: E.S. & F.W. Keller] c; doc/16m; for Encyclopaedia Britannica Films; released

1958 The Diary of Anne Frank [George Stevens] cs/b&w; ph loc scenes (dir by George Stevens Jr.); ph: William C. Mellor

1961 My Geisha [Jack Cardiff (JC)] tr/c; ph: Shunichiro Nakao (fell ill and JC took over; uncred); 2uc: Stanley W. Sayer

1968 The Girl on a Motorcycle/La motocyclette/Naked Under Leather [Jack Cardiff] c; cph: René Guissart (as lighting

1975 The Tempest [Michael Powell & Dacosta Carayan] scheduled to start filming in September; unrealized (project was in

1977 [Agatha Christie's] Death on the Nile [John Guillermin] c; 2uc: John Cardiff

1980 The Dogs of War [John Irvin] c; addph: John Cardiff; New York ph: Irving Deutch; Miami ph: John Elton

1984 [Stephen King's] Cat's Eye [Lewis Teague] J-D-C Scope/c; 2uc: Paul Ryan; spec vfx: Barry Nolan

1984 Rambo: First Blood Part II [George Pan Cosmatos] p/c; hph: Peter MacDonald

1988 Call from Space [Richard Fleischer] Showscan 3-D 70mm/c; short/29m; spec pfx: Phil Meador, Tim Angulo, a.o.

1990 Vivaldi's Four Seasons [Jack Cardiff] c; mus short/48m; with violinist Nigel Kennedy for Toshiba EMI

2003 The Tell-Tale Heart [Stephanie Sinclaire] c; short/35m; add camera: Chris Pinnock

2004 Lights 2 [Marcus Dillistone] c; ph alleyway scenes; ph: Ron Stannett (opening scenes), Sue Gibson (day-to-night

transition) & Phedon Papamichael (closing scenes); demo film for Fuji Eterna 500 film stock

2006 [How They Make the Movies -] The Other Side of the Screen [Stanley A. Long] 12-part doc series for DVD; cons +

1983 The Far Pavilions/Blade of Steel [Peter Duffell] 3-part miniseries; 2uc: Fred Tammes; also released theatrically

1983 The Last Days of Pompeii [Peter Hunt] 3-part miniseries; spec pfx: Cliff Culley

1928 The Informer [Arthur Robison] runner; ph: Werner Brandes & Theodor Sparkuhl

1930 The Flame of Love/Road to Dishonour/Hai-Tang [Richard Eichberg & Walter Summers] c.asst; ph: Jack Cox or

1930 The Skin Game [Alfred Hitchcock] clapper boy; ph: Jack Cox & Charles Martin

1932 Diamond Cut Diamond/Blame the Woman [Fred Niblo & Maurice Elvey] c.asst; ph: Henry Gerrard

1932 Brewster's Millions [Thornton Freeland] c.op; ph: Barney McGill & Henry Harris

1935 Honeymoon for Three [Leo Mittler] c.op; ph: George D. Stretton or Henry Harris

1935 The Ghost Goes West [René Clair; Alexander Korda re-shot/re-shaped some of RC footage (uncred)] co-c.op (uncred);

1935 Things to Come [William Cameron Menzies] c.op sfx; sfx ph: Edward Cohen; ph: Georges Périnal

1936 The Man Who Could Work Miracles [Lothar Mendes] uncred co-c.op (+ sfx ph); ph: Harold Rosson

1936 Wings of the Morning [Harold D. Schuster (replaced Glenn Tryon)] co-c.op; ph: Ray Rennahan

1936 Dark Journey/The Anxious Years [Victor Saville] c.op; ph: Georges Périnal & Harry Stradling Sr.

1937 The Coronation of King George VI, May 1937 [?; newsreel in Technicolor] c.op; ph: H.B. Craft

1942 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp/[The Adventures of] Colonel Blimp [Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger]

2004 Silence Becomes You [Stephanie Sinclaire] visual cons; ph: Arturo Smith

2005 Where Love Reigns [David Ness] creative cons; scheduled to start filming in February; title was changed to 'Sabina' with

[Behind camera] with Michael Todd Jr.

"Scent of Mystery"

1959 Scent of Mystery/Holiday in Spain [ph: John von Kotze] filmed in Todd-70 & 3-panel (presented in Cinemiracle &

1964 Young Cassidy [took over from John Ford (uncred) who fell ill halfway through the shoot] ph: Edward Scaife

1968 The Girl on a Motorcycle/La motocyclette/Naked Under Leather [+ cph] lighting cam: René Guissart; see Films

1972 Follyfoot [ep #19 'The Hundred Pound Horse' & #21 'The Prize'] 39-part tv-series, 1971-73; 2nd season, 1972; ph: Peter

1973 Follyfoot [ep #32 'The Challenge' & #33 'The Letter'] 3rd season, 1973; ph: Peter Jackson; see 1972

2001 One Life After/One Life Later [announced project; exec prod: Martin Scorsese]

1922 Billy's Rose [Challis Sanderson] ph: ?; his parents also played a part