Oliver Wood, The Bourne Identity and Face/Off Cinematographer, Dead at 80

Oliver Wood has passed away at age 80. The cinematographer was known for many films, especially in the action genre, and his most iconic behind-the-scenes work was serving as the cinematographer on the Bourne trilogy. In fact, he earned a BAFTA Award nomination for The Bourne Ultimatum in 2008. According to Variety, Wood passed away at his home in Hollywood on February 13th after a battle with cancer. 

Wood was born in London and moved to New York when he was only 19, and his first major credit was working on Leonard Kastle’s 1970 crime film The Honeymoon Killers. Before breaking into film, Wood served as the cinematographer on over 50 episodes of Miami Vice. 

Throughout his career, Wood had nearly 60 cinematography credits to his name and worked as the Director of Photography on big films such as Die Hard 2, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Mystery Date, Rudy, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Face/Off, Mighty Joe Young, U-571, Freaky Friday (2003), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Fantastic Four (2005), Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and much more. Wood’s final DP credit was for last year’s Morbius. While the Marvel movie received a lot of negative reviews, some critics did praise Wood’s work on the film.

Many people have taken to social media today to celebrate Wood’s career and mourn his passing. You can view some of the posts below:

“RIP Oliver Wood. A true hall of fame cinematographer. ALPHABET CITY is one of the most beautiful no budget movies ever. After shooting 50+ episodes of MIAMI VICE he go his shot at a big studio movie with THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE. One of my favorites,” @bdgrabinski tweeted.

“RIP Oliver Wood. You will be missed. One of the most underrated and versatile cinematographers of the modern era, who took his work seriously and gave texture and dimension to every project. With the ‘Bourne’ movies he created a new language for action cinema. A huge loss,” @DrewTailored posted.

“We lost one of the greats today, Oliver Wood, DP on the entire Bourne Trilogy, where ‘he used multiple cameras to create a distinctive, naturalistic effect… in turn introducing an era-defining style to Hollywood action films in the early 2000s.’ RIP Ollie,” @LeDoctor wrote.

Wood is survived by his wife, Sabina Groh, as well as his children, Katharine Wood, Fiona Wood, and Emerson Forth. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.