Gayne Rescher
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
(written from a Production point of view)
Jay Gayne Rescher (19 December 1924 – 29 February 2008; age 83) was a Hollywood cinematographer who served as Director of Photography on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Although he started his career working on motion pictures in the late 1950s, he began working primarily in television in the 1970s; in fact, Star Trek II was one of only three feature films Rescher worked on after 1973 (the others being 1976's Norman... Is That You?, starring Redd Foxx, and 1978's Olly, Olly, Oxen Free, starring Katharine Hepburn). After making the transition to television, Rescher received a total of three Emmy Awards and five Emmy nominations for his work in that medium.
Rescher's first motion picture was Elia Kazan's acclaimed drama A Face in the Crowd. His subsequent film credits include 1960's Murder, Inc., 1968's Rachel, Rachel, 1969's John and Mary, 1971's A New Leaf, and 1974's Claudine. He worked on his first made-for-TV movie, The Third Girl from the Left, in 1973, after which he rarely worked on features again. Among his TV movie credits during the 1970s were 1975's Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, 1977's Something for Joey, and 1978's A Christmas to Remember. In addition, he was the cinematographer on two 1977 TV mysteries starring Andy Griffith and veteran Star Trek actor James Cromwell – The Girl in the Empty Grave and Deadly Game. The former was directed by Lou Antonio and also featured Jonathan Banks, Don Keefer, and Byron Morrow, while the latter co-starred Morgan Woodward. Rescher later worked with Lou Antonio in 1979's Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (featuring David Ogden Stiers). Rescher was also the cinematographer on the 1979 TV movie Dummy, starring Star Trek: The Next Generation's LeVar Burton and Paul Sorvino.
Next, Rescher worked on the Maviola series of TV movies, all of which debuted in May 1980: This Year's Blonde (featuring Michael Strong and Vic Tayback), The Scarlett O'Hara War (with Warren Munson and Clive Revill), and The Silent Lovers (starring Brian Keith). For his work on the latter, Rescher received his first Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or a Special– and his first win. His second and third Emmy nominations came for his work on 1981's Bitter Harvest (featuring Dwight Schultz) and The Princess and the Cabbie (featuring Ellen Geer); he earned a fourth nomination for the 1983 Mike Hammer thriller Murder Me, Murder You.
After working on Star Trek II, Rescher was recruited by that film's director, Nicholas Meyer, to serve as the cinematographer for the provoking, controversial 1983 nuclear holocaust movie, The Day After (featuring Wrath of Khan actress Bibi Besch). Rescher's work on this project garnered him a fifth Emmy nomination. Rescher earned his sixth Emmy nomination for 1986's Promise (on which Eric Stillwell worked). Rescher went on to win his next two nominations, the first for 1988's Shooter (co-starring Rosalind Chao, Alan Ruck and Noble Willingham) and the second for part one of the 1990 mini-series Lucky/Chances (on which Robert Duncan McNeill was a cast member, along with Phil Morris, Jimmie F. Skaggs, and John Winston).
In addition to his Emmy Awards, Rescher also received four award nominations from the American Society of Cinematographers for his work on Promise, Shooter, 1989's Single Women Married Man (starring Jeanetta Arnette), and Lucky/Chances. He won the awards for the last two.
Rescher died in Gig Harbor, Washington, at the age of 83. [1]
