Paul M. Pollard, Who Handled a Camera on ‘Bound for Glory’ and ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ Dies at 84

Paul M. Pollard, a veteran camera operator with credits including Bound for Glory , Heaven’s Gate , Northern Exposure and The Larry Sanders Show , has died. He was 84.

Pollard died Aug. 1 of heart issues at Southern California Hospital (formerly Brotman Medical Center) in Culver City, his daughter, Georgia Pollard, told The Hollywood Reporter .

The son of a special effects man at 20th Century Fox, Pollard also shot Bud Greenspan ’s 16 Days of Glory (1985), the definitive documentary about the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and the 1986 TV special Ozzy Osbourne: The Ultimate Ozzy , which captures the singer live in concert. Related Stories Critic's Appreciation Hayden Panettiere's Talent Never Got the Next Chapter It Deserved Movies Peggy Webber, Prolific Radio Actress Who Worked for Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock on Film, Dies at 100

As a camera technician, Pollard worked for famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler on Bound for Glory (1976), the biopic of Woody Guthrie that was directed by Hal Ashby. Wexler won an Oscar for his work, which included a pioneering 2-minute, 15-second Steadicam shot that trailed and then led David Carradine as the folk singer through a crowd of migrant workers.

He teamed with Wexler again on Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982).

Pollard surely kept busy as an operator for cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond on Heaven’s Gate (1980), the famously over-budget frontier epic that was filmed mainly at a studio-constructed town in Glacier National Park in Montana. Director Michael Cimino ordered up more than 1.3 million feet of film — nearly 220 hours — for that.