Andrew Lesnie, Lord of the Rings cinematographer, dies

He Sydney native, who won an Oscar in 2002 for his work on the first Lord of the Rings film, is believed to have suffered a heart attack on Monday.

Russell Crowe, who recently worked with Leslie on his directorial debut The Water Diviner, was among the first to react to the news.

"The master of the light, genius Andrew Lesnie has passed on," he tweeted.

Film critic Harry Knowles, who got to know Lesnie on the set of Lord Of The Rings, also paid tribute, recalling his "many great memories with that man".

"In the 14 days I was on set of the original LOTR shoot, I swear I never saw Andrew Lesnie not smiling huge and making others feel the same," Knowles tweeted.

"Andrew Lesnie and Peter Jackson would giggle behind the camera together like the most mischievous pair of movie masters that I've seen."


A spokesman from the Australian Cinematographers Society said: "We have been advised of the sudden death of Andrew," adding that the film-maker's family would provide an official statement later.

Jackson hired Lesnie for his Lord of the Rings trilogy after seeing his work on Babe, the Australian film about a talking pig.

"I'd never worked with him or even met him before, but he'd shot the Babe films and I thought they looked amazing, the way he'd used backlight and the sun and natural light to create a very magical effect," Jackson said in a 2004 interview. "Babe had that larger-than-life feel about it that I wanted."

Over the 12-year span of making the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, Lesnie was also the director of photography on Jackson's remake of King Kong and the crime drama The Lovely Bones.

His other credits included Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, and The Last Airbender directed M Night Shyamalan.

Jackson has yet to release an official statement, but staff at Weta Workshop, which produced props and special effects for Lord of the Rings, said they were "saddened to hear the news" of Lesnie's sudden death.

"Our memories of Andrew will always be of a wonderful and caring person who looked out for the technicians around him, was keen to have a good laugh and keep everyone jollied along even when things were at the most stressful for everyone," said owners Richard and Tania Taylor on Facebook.

"What an incredible man and we are very fortunate to have had the chance to work with him on so many wonderful projects."
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Lesnie began his career as a camera assistant on the low-budget horror film Patrick in 1978, while still a student at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

He later worked as a freelance cameraman for TV station ABC, and made a 1980 documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to bodybuilding in Australia.