Background
Bob Willoughby was born on June 30, 1927, in Los Angeles, California, United States. He was brought up by his mother, Nettie, his parents having divorced before his birth.
Los Angeles, CA 90007, United States
Bob Willoughby studied at the University of Southern California's film school.
Bob Willoughby and his wife, Dorothy on their 50th Anniversary
(In his distinguished career as a Hollywood photographer, ...)
In his distinguished career as a Hollywood photographer, Bob Willoughby has taken some of the benchmark photos of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda but he's unequivocal about who was his favorite subject: Edda van Heemstra Helpburn-Ruston, also know as Audrey Hepburn. Willoughby was called in to shoot a new starlet one morning in '53. It was a humdrum commission for the regular studio portraitist now credited with having virtually invented the photojournalistic motion picture still, but when he met the Belgian beauty, Willoughby was enraptured.
https://www.amazon.com/Audrey-Hepburn-Collection-Bob-Willoughby/dp/1903399262/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Audrey+Hepburn%3A+An+Intimate+Collection+Bob+Willoughby&qid=1609232595&s=books&sr=1-1
2002
Bob Willoughby was born on June 30, 1927, in Los Angeles, California, United States. He was brought up by his mother, Nettie, his parents having divorced before his birth.
An interest in photography was sparked when Bob Willoughby's father gave him an Argus C-3 camera for his 12th birthday and he gained an opportunity when a neighbor allowed him to use his darkroom in exchange for babysitting his children. He studied at the University of Southern California's film school and the Kann Institute of Art in Los Angeles, where he was taught by the graphic designer Saul Bass.
Bob Willoughby’s professional career received its first major stimulus when, whilst exhibiting his photographs on La Cienega Boulevard one day, a representative of the Globe Photo Agency saw the young photographer’s images and took his portfolio to Harper’s Bazaar in New York. Taken on by the magazine, Willoughby began photographing theatre and cultural events in Los Angeles. Gaining renown for his commercial work, through the 1950s he worked for Collier’s, This Week, American Weekly, Look, LIFE, and The New York Times.
Alongside the magazine work through which he made his living as a young professional, Willoughby exploited the full range of his creativity by photographing the Californian jazz scene. He started photographing stars of the Los Angeles jazz pack when he was still at high school and was soon enraptured by the exhilarating live performances. Photographing the likes of Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday, Willoughby captured both the frenetic energy of performances and the exhausted calm backstage.
One of the most astonishing photographs from Willoughby’s jazz series, Big Jay McNeely (1951), came out of a late-night jazz concert at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. In 1954 Willoughby’s career changed course when Warner Brothers asked him to photograph Judy Garland on the set of A Star Is Born (1954). This was the starting point for a long and illustrious career as the first-ever stills photographer employed on Hollywood film sets. Willoughby went on to photograph a huge spectrum of acting elite, Frank Sinatra on the set of Can-Can (1959), Blake Edwards throwing a custard pie at Natalie Wood in The Great Race (1965), and Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross running from the church in The Graduate (1967).
In order to surmount the challenges of working on film sets, Willoughby became a technical innovator, inventing the silent blimp for 35mm still cameras so that he could photograph silently on set. He would embroil himself with the film crew and use remote control cameras to achieve the most naturalistic images of the actors and directors at work. After falling in love with Ireland on one of his many trips abroad, Willoughby bought Coolmaine Castle in Cork, Ireland, and moved there with his family. He lived in Ireland for 17 years, dividing his time between the family home and film sets in Los Angeles where he continued to work. He lived his last years in Vence, France, where he continued a very active professional life.
(In his distinguished career as a Hollywood photographer, ...)
2002Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle on the Set
1963Anne Bancroft Behind the Scenes on the Set
1967Chet Baker, Los Angeles
1953Gerry Mulligan
1953Drummer Al Bartee Performing at the Big Jay
1951Audrey Hepburn on the Set of 'My Fair Lady'
1963Elvis Presley and Sophia Loren
1958Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis
1960Louis Armstrong
1959Marilyn Monroe
1960Big Jay Mcneely, Los Angeles Olympic
1951Bob Willoughby was married. His wife's name is Dorothy. They had four children: Christopher, Stephen, David, Catherine.