Vilmos Zsigmond was a Hungarian-born cinematographer and Oscar award winner. He was rated among the top cinematographers in the world based on a 2003 survey. Zsigmond was born on June 16, 1930 in Szeged, Hungary. He studied at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest and earned his MA in cinematography. He and László Kovács documented the Hungarian revolution of 1956 before escaping to Austria then the United States. He started out doing low-budget films in the 1960s but rose to prominence in the 1970s after being hired by film director, Robert Altman. Zsigmond is known for films like ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, ‘The Long Goodbye’ and ‘Stalin’. He co-founded the film school, Global Cinematography Institute, in 2012. He was married to Elizabeth Fuzes and they had two children. Vilmos Zsigmond died on January 1, 2016 at the age of 85. He died from a combination of many illnesses. He was 5ft 5in tall and he had an estimated net worth of $15 million.
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