Name John Hamilton | Role Photographer | |
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Books Thunder in the Dust: Classic Images of Western Movies | ||
John R. Hamilton (12 November 1923 – 7 February 1997) was an American photographer. Hamilton began as a magazine photojournalist, then became known for his photographs of actors on film sets. The first movie Hamilton worked on was The Searchers in 1956 with John Ford and John Wayne. He worked on 77 films and his photographs appeared in Life, Look, Time and other newspapers and periodicals.
Contents
Hamilton photographed Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Clint Eastwood, Elvis and Jayne Mansfield. His portrait of John Wayne was used on the cover of Life in 1965.
In 2003, photographer Bruce Weber's Little Bear Press published a book of Hamilton's celebrity photos titled Thank Your Lucky Stars. Weber says Hamilton's "photographs were intimate and sexy and no one captured our heroes in American cinema like he did. He gave us an insider's view of incredibly private people caught in a special world somewhere between a movie set and home."
Background
Hamilton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1923. He was a sergeant in the Marines during World War II. After the war, he moved to California to attend the Art Center School of Photography.