Background
Graver was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.
Graver was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.
He was a prolific film-maker but is perhaps best known as Orson Welles" final cinematographer. Under the pseudonym of Robert McCallum he also directed adult films. At age 20, he moved to Hollywood to become an actor, but drifted into production when work as an actor was scarce.
He was drafted into the United States. military and was assigned to the Navy Combat Camera Group.
Upon returning to civilian life, Graver made documentaries for a year before starting to work on larger budget features. In 1970, Graver made an unannounced call on Orson Welles, saying he wanted to work with the director
Welles told Graver that only one other person had ever called him to say they wanted to work with him - and that was Gregg Toland who worked with Welles on Citizen Kane. Foreign the rest of Orson"s life (and his own) Graver belonged to the great director"
Soon after, Welles and Graver started work on the film The Other Side of the Wind, in addition to other projects Welles had in the works including F Foreign Fake and Filming Othello.
When shooting was finished, he handed the statuette to Graver saying, "Here, keep this." Graver understood this to be a gift in lieu of payment for his work.
Graver held onto the award for several years until he ran into financial trouble in the 1990s, and in 1994 he sold it for $50,000. The purchaser, a company called Bay Holdings, then attempted to sell it at auction through Sotheby"s in London. When Welles" daughter, Beatrice Welles learned of the intended sale, she successfully sued both Graver and the holding company to stop the sale.
She eventually took possession of the statuette before then selling it on herself.
Besides his work with Welles, Graver also worked for other notable Hollywood directors including Roger Corman, Fred Olen Ray and Ron Howard. The bulk of his output was B-movies since, as he put it, "I knew how to make a movie without much money."
Graver was later inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame for his work.
Graver died on November 16, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California after a lengthy battle with cancer. His widow, former actress Jillian Kesner died the following year of complications of a staph infection, which she contracted after having been diagnosed with leukemia.
She was 58 years old.
Graver"s memoir, Making Movies with Orson Welles, co-written by Andrew J. Rausch, was released by Scarecrow Press in 2008.