Adrian Biddle was an English cinematographer who worked as a camera assistant for Alien and cinematographer for Aliens.
Alien franchise credits[]
Other credits[]
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
- Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969)
- Murphy's War (1971)
- When Eight Bells Toll (1971)
- Nouvelles de Henry James (1976)
- The Duellists (1977)
- The Princess Bride (1987)
- Willow (1988)
- The Dawning (1988)
- The Tall Guy (1989)
- Thelma & Louise (1991)
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
- City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994)
- Judge Dredd (1995)
- 101 Dalmatians (1996)
- Fierce Creatures (1997)
- The Butcher Boy (1997)
- Event Horizon (1997)
- Holy Man (1998)
- The Mummy (1999)
- The World Is Not Enough (1999)
- The Weight of Water (2000)
- Gangster No. 1 (2000)
- 102 Dalmatians (2000)
- The Mummy Returns (2001)
- Reign of Fire (2002)
- Shanghai Knights (2003)
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
- Laws of Attraction (2004)
- An American Haunting (2005)
- V for Vendetta (2006)
- Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
Biographical information[]
Early life[]
Biddle was a talented swimmer in his youth, and it was through this that he broke into the film industry. In 1967 the underwater photographer Egil Woxholt hired him to be his apprentice. Uncredited, he worked in this capacity on both the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and Murphy's War (1971).
Career[]
After this, Biddle worked for Ridley Scott's advertising company R.S.A. where he worked on a large number of advertisements with Scott and when Scott moved into films, Biddle followed him.
On The Duellists (1977) he was working as a clapper loader, before advancing to the position of focus puller on Alien (1979).
Following Alien, Biddle returned to working as a cinematographer on advertisements. During this time he developed a number of new lighting techniques and worked on a number of famous campaigns. His most famous advertisement was 1984 (1984), directed by Ridley Scott, for Apple. The advert's photography, combined with a personal recommendation from Scott, prompted James Cameron to hire Biddle for Aliens (1986) after the original cinematographer Dick Bush left over creative differences with Cameron, Biddle stepped in to replace him in his first feature film role.
Biddle was a cinematographer on a further 25 feature films, including Thelma and Louise (1991), for which he received a nomination for the Oscar for Best Cinematography. In 1997 he was voted European Cinematographer of the Year for his work on The Butcher Boy (1997). The last film that he worked on, prior to his death from myocardial infarction, was V for Vendetta (2006) which was dedicated to his memory.