Christopher George Joseph Challis BSC, FRPS[1] (18 March 1919 – 31 May 2012)[2] was a British cinematographer who worked on more than 70 feature films from the 1940s onwards.
[3] After working as camera operator on several films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, he made his debut as director of photography on The End of the River (1947) one of their projects as producers.
He was cinematographer on most of Powell and Pressburger's later films, including The Small Back Room (1949), The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Oh...
Challis is credited with being the first person to create specially modified 5000-watt 'Senior' luminaries to provide cinematic lighting underwater while filming The Deep in 1976.
[5] Martin Scorsese said: "It is not possible even to begin to take the full measure of the greatness of British filmmaking without thinking of Chris Challis," and: "Chris Challis brought a vibrancy to the celluloid palette that was entirely his own, and which helped make Britain a leader in that long, glorious period of classic world cinema.