Occupation Cinematographer Name Jack Asher | Role Cinematographer Siblings Robert Asher | |
 | ||
Born 29 March 1916 London England Died April 1991, Hendon, London, United Kingdom Nominations BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography (Colour) Movies Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Brides of Dracula, The Mummy, The Revenge of Frankenstein Similar People Jimmy Sangster, Robert Asher, Anthony Hinds, Terence Fisher, James Bernard | ||
Jack Asher B.S.C. (29 March 1916, London – 1991) was an English cinematographer. His brother Robert Asher was a film and TV director with whom he worked on several occasions.
He began his cinematic career as a camera operator, and made his first film as cinematographer or "lighting cameraman" on The Magic Bow (1946).
Asher is best remembered for his work on Hammer films, beginning with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), the first of Hammer's gothic horrors, and the earliest colour version of the Frankenstein story. He was the director of photography on several of the Hammer horror films including Dracula (1958), The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), The Mummy (1959) and The Brides of Dracula (1960).
His style was characterized by a fantastical use of colours, such as non-realistic purples and greens. Director Terence Fisher said of him, "Jack Asher had a very distinctive style of lighting, which was quite different to Arthur Grant's...(Who) had a more realistic approach to the situation. Jack Asher's was almost theatrical lighting with little tricks, like color slides placed over the lights and so on."
Asher's non-Hammer films included The Good Die Young (1954) and Reach for the Sky (1956).
In 1964, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best British Cinematography (Colour) for his work on The Scarlet Blade.