Caleb Deschanel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caleb Deschanel (born September 21, 1944) is an American cinematographer.

Joseph Caleb Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He attended Johns Hopkins University from 1962 to 1966, where he met Walter Murch, with whom he staged "happenings" including a memorable one where Murch simply sat down and ate an apple for an audience. Murch graduated a year ahead of him and encouraged Deschanel to follow him to the USC School of Cinema-Television, where he finished in 1968. Following that, he attended the AFI Conservatory and graduated with an M.F.A degree in 1969. He is married to actress Mary Jo Weir and is the father of actresses Zooey and Emily Deschanel.

His cinematography credits include Fly Away Home, The Black Stallion, The Right Stuff, Hal Ashby's Being There, and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. He also worked on John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence, Apocalypse Now.

In 1990, Deschanel directed three episodes of the David Lynch series Twin Peaks.

He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, each time in the field of cinematography. The first nomination came for the 1984 film "The Natural." His second was in 1996 for "Fly Away Home." A third came in 2000 for "The Patriot" and then a fourth in 2004 for "The Passion of the Christ".