MuppetVision 3D Cinematographer Isidore Mankofsky Has Passed Away At The Age Of 89
We’ve got some sad news for fans of The Muppet Movie and the Hollywood Studios attraction MuppetVision 3D. Cinematographer Isidore Mankofsky, who worked on both films has passed away at the age of 89 according to a recent piece in The Hollywood Reporter.
Mankofsky worked on an eclectic array of Hollywood films including Somewhere in Time, The Burning Bed and more.
Mankofsky, who was nominated for three Emmy Awards actually got his start at Encyclopedia Britannica Films. He was interviewed back in 2009 where he said he enjoyed working with Jim Henson and his team on The Muppet Movie which came out in 1979.
“First of all, no [actor] complained about the light in his eyes or how long he had to stand in — you just stuck them on a pole,” he said. “And the puppeteers were really nice guys. When I asked Henson to move Kermit to the right a little for a better frame, Henson [who operated and voiced the frog] wouldn’t answer — Kermit would.”
Mankofsky was a son of immigrants and was born in New York City on September 22, 1931. He was in the US Air Force where he photographed athletic teams for the base magazine. You could say that was the beginning of my career in the magical world of motion pictures,” he said.
Isidore would go on to jobs at TV stations in Reno and Chicago before joining Encyclopedia Britannica Films shooting 161 30 minute educational films. According to a piece in The Hollywood Reporter, Mankofsky said of this job, “Each film was an opportunity to do something that I added to my book of knowledge,” he said. “Because each film presented its own problems, the cinematographer was, among a lot of other things, a problem solver.”
The Mankofsky would eventually move to Universal Television and worked on a variety of projects from Magnum P.I. to The Wonderful World of Disney. He would go on to collaborate with none other than George Lucas on Ewoks: The Battle for Endor in 1985 before reuniting with Kermit and gang for MuppetVision 3-D.
Our condolences go out to his family. Isidore is survived by his wife Christine whom he married in 1972.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter