László Kovács (cinematographer)

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This article is about the cinematographer. For the Hungarian diplomat, see László Kovács.

László Kovács (born 14 May 1933, in a small village called Cece, Hungary) is a cinematographer, most famous for his award-winning work on Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, but the recipient of many other awards.

Kovács studied cinema in Budapest between 1952 and 1956, and together with Vilmos Zsigmond, a fellow student, he filmed the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on black and white 35mm film as it developed day by day. After smuggling the 30,000 feet of film to the West in November of that year however, the revolution was no longer considered newsworthy and it was not until some years later that it was screened on the CBS television network.

Kovács settled in the United States, and worked at several menial jobs including making maple syrup, printing microfilm documents in an insurance office, before making several "no-budget" films together with Vilmos Zsigmond.

His breakthrough came with Easy Rider starring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969, and since then he has filmed over 70 feature films including Five Easy Pieces, The Last Waltz, Shattered, Paper Moon, Shampoo, New York, New York, Ghostbusters, Say Anything, and My Best Friend's Wedding.