Eric Gray was a stills photographer whose work was featured in Life Magazine. His career was mainly in the British film industry and it and was on two Anthony Asquith pictures, Shooting Stars 1928 and A Cottage on Dartmoor 1929, that his reputation began to emerge. Gray was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon, Surrey. He operated his own studio at 17 Rupert Street close to the Trocadero in central London between 1931 and 1940 and his camera studies included Chili Bouchier and Harry Milton. During the war he joined the Royal Observer Corps from 1939 to 1945. In 1941 Gray was hired as a stills photographer on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft is Missing and a selection of these photographs was used to promote the film in Britain and America. Four years later, Gray was again working with Powell and Pressburger. A Matter of Life and Death was filmed at Denham Studios and on location in Devon. Gray was the main stills photographer working behind the scenes on location at Saunton Sands in Devon, while Fred Daniels focused on gallery portraits in the studio. Both Daniels and Gray were credited as creating the most iconic images of the wartime romantic drama starring David Niven and Kim Hunter. Their work was published in the film classic series. In 1948 the British Film Academy arranged the first public exhibition on the art of still photography in feature films and documentary film. The exhibition was also supported by the film union A.C.T. and marked a greater understanding and appreciation of their work as opposed to enlargements from motion picture frames. Gray chose to submit stills from A Matter of Life and Death which were approved by the committee including Michael Powell and Roger Manvell. In the 1950s Gray worked with Hollywood director John Huston on Moulin Rouge 1952 and Beat the Devil. Both films were filmed at Shepperton Studios in England. In the later, Eric Gray was hired to create studio portraits of Humphrey Bogart, a blonde Jennifer Jones and Peter Lorre. Other notable stills in a long career included Room at the Top in 1959. Gray's portrait of Laurence Harvey was featured in John Kobal's study of Portraits of the British Cinema.—nigelarthur59@@ 05:59, 21 June 2014
