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SCHILLER Lawrence 


 

Lawrence Julian Schilller.

Date of birth : December 28, 1936, Brooklyn.

 

Addresses

* 1940 : 1763 East 3rd Street, Brooklyn ()

* 1950 : 4806 Everts Street, San Diego ().

Profession photographer.

                     

Portrait ,;,

 

Story

His parents Isidore (January 2, 1908, New York-May 9, 1975, California) and Jean (born Liebowitz, April 6, 1911, New York-March 11, 2005, California) had 2 children, Lawrence and Martin D (born in 1939, New York).

During his childwood, ha had an accident which led to deterioration of his vision at one eye.

,,

In 1942 the family settled in San Diego, California. In 1949 he attended La Jolla High School where he graduated.

In 1953, he won the High School Graflex Awards and wrote a chapter about lighting in the Graphic-Graflex

Photography book().

He worked as an assistant for Anfy Lopez, photographer for Acme Newspix in New York, for Sport magazine and for the New York Times.

Writer Jacob Deschin called him as "pro at 16" in US Camera magazine.

He won the Los Angeles Pepperdine College Socialistic Sports Association, where he graduated in 1957

.

In 1954, he won the Scholastic Magazine Photographic Awards .

In 1955, his first pictures were published in the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1956, publication of "Head Over Heals in Work" (), his first picture for Life magazine.

In 1958 he took pictures of Joan Staley, the first playmate for Playboy magazine (,

,).

January 23, 1960 he married Judith R.Holtzer (born in 1939, New York) in Los Angeles. They divorced in July

1976. 

They had 3 children, Suzanne Illen (born November 1st, 1961, Los Angeles)(), Marc D. 

(born April 30, 1964, Los Angeles)(,) and Howard Ian (born January 13, 1968, Los Angeles).

In 1960 he covered Richard Nixon's presidential campaign for Paris-Match magazine. Incidentally in 1961, he won the "Best Storytelling Photo" award from the National Press Photographers Association and

Encyclopedia Awards, for his picture of Nixon, losing before  John Kennedy ().


In 1963 he worked for the Saturday Evening Post and arrived on time in Dallas, November 22, to be able to take

pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's murderer (;). 

Later he obtained Jack Ruby's last interview (Lee H.Oswald's murderer)().

In 1964 he won many awards during the « Picture of the Year Competition », sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the World Book Encyclopedia.

In 1965, he took pictures of the boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Floyd Patterson in Las Vegas for


Sport magazine ().

In 1966 he published a major photographic essay about the wildly use of LSD for Life magazine

(,,,,).

In 1968 he took pictures of Robert Kennedy during the presidential campaign committee

(,,).

In 1969 he directed the photomontage of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" () for the 20th Century-Fox.
He took pictures of a naked Paula Kelly for Playboy magazine (,).

He also interviewed Susan Atkin's confession, about her role in the murders ordered by Charles Manson in 1969; it was published, among others, in the Los Angeles Times.

In 1970 he worked together with author Albert Goldman on a book about satirical actor Lenny Bruce, « Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce ».

In 1971 he directed « American Dreamer », a documentory about actor/director Dennis Hopper.

He also directed the photomontage of « Ladies Sings the Blues ».

In 1972 he worked together for the first time with Norman Mailer for the book "Marilyn", including pictures from 24 major photographers. The book became a best-seller. An exhibition would follow throughout the world.

A 35 years friendship started with Norman Mailer ().

In 1973, he worked with photographer W.Eugene Smith and published "Miramata". This was his first major photographic work about industrial pollution.

He collaborated for the second time with Norman Mailer in 1974 for "The Faith of Graffiti". 

In 1976, he covered Patty Hearst's trial () and the historical boxing match between Mohammed Ali

and Joe Frazier ().

He co-directed the academy award winner documentary « The Man Who Skied Down the Everest ».

 

He directed his first movie "Hey, I'm Alive" (). He started a serie of interviews with Gary Gilmore, an American criminal, sentenced to death and executed in 1977, published in Playboy magazines

().

He collaborated once again with Norman Mailer on "The Executioner's Song", a novel inspired from the life and testimonies from Gary Gilmore's siblings. The book was a best-seller and Mailer won his second Pulitzer prize.

On November 5, 1977 he married, in Los Angeles, Stephanie Nan Wolf (September 22, 1949-January 12, 2010).

Together they had 2 children : Anthony Ian (born January 5, 1979, Los Angeles) (,

) and Cameron Austin (born November 22, 1980,  Los Angeles).

In 1982, he directed and produced the movie « The Executioner's Song » which won an Emmy Award; the leading actor, Tommy Lee Jones, won the Best Actor l'Emmy Award for this movie, among others prizes.

The movie was presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 1983.

In 1984 he co-directed and was executive producer for the TV series "Peter the Great" () which won 3 Emmy Awards.

In 1987 he was delegate at the Moscow Peace Forum during which Michael Gorbatchev announced the beginning of the "perestroïka".

In June 1991 petition for divorce with his spouse Stephanie, the divorce was pronounced in 1992.

In January 1993 he married a translator, Ludmila Peresvetova from who he divorced in July 1994.

The New Yorker magazine published "Oswald's Tale", his 4th collaboration with Norman Mailer 

(); the book was a best-seller.

In 1996 he wrote "American Tragedy" with James Willwerth which recounted O.J.Simpson's defense; the book was a best-seller.

On February 15, 1997 he married, in Nevada, Kathy Amerman, photographer ().

In 1998 he published "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town" about the Jon Benet Ramsay's case.

Between 1999 and 2002, he directed and produced for CBS TV "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town", "American

Tragedy" and "Master Spy : The Robert Hanssen Stroy" ().

Between 2002 and 2004 he directed and produced "Trace Evidence", a TV serie about 34 crimes that famous forensic Henry Lee had solved. (Dr Lee was in charge of Jon Benet Ramsey and O.J.Simpson's cases).

In 2005-2006 he started a documentary project about china contemporary history, related by his major artists

().

In 2007 he published his first photos collection from his pictures taken in the 60's, "Marilyn 12".

At Norman Mailer's death, he was nominated head council member of the Mailer Estate. He was president and co-founder of the Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony in Princeton, Massachusetts.

In 2011 he married Nina Wiener in Provincetown, Massachussetts (;,

)

Link with Marilyn
In 1960, he worked for Life magazine, and took pictures on the production of  "Let's Make Love" ;

-;,,-;,,

In May 1962 he was in charge, with his colleague William Woodfield, for Paris-Match magazine, of covering the shooting of "Something's Got to Give".

On May 28, 1962 they were at the Fox when Marilyn shot the scene of the swimming-pool; at a moment, either on the director's, George Cukor, order, or on her own, Marilyn took her flesh-colored bathsuit off and posed nude for the photographers for about an hour, inside and outside the pool.

Usally style-conscious to know which pictures would be published or not, this time, she gave her permission to Schiller for the snapshots commercialization. He perfectly knew what he had in his hands and convinced Jimmy Mitchell, the photographer who accompanied them, to get rid of his negatives for the sum of 10 000$. 
Thus, with Woodfield, they had the exclusive rights of Marilyn's last nudes, the first since 13 years.


Pool scene

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Mink suit

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In her dressing-room

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Black and white blouse

June 1, 1962, Marilyn celebrated her birthday at the Fox.

Birthday cake

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In a dressing-room

,,,,,


It was her last day on the set ;


Other

 

He sold the pictures to magazines in 32 countries; in the USA they were purchased by Playboymagazine; at the beginning he managed to convince Marilyn to pose for other pictures, for the cover and the back cover of the magazine, but after, she broke her commitment off.


He visited her on August 4, 1962, during the day, to talk about the pictures she approved.  

Four days later, on August 8, 1962, he attended her funeral and was one of the rare photographers who were allowed to come near enough to take some snapshots.

,

 

To celebrate the 10th birthday of her death, Schiller organized an itinerant exhibition of Marilyn's pictures taken by 15 great photographers. In one of the town of the roadshow, a Tom Kelley nude in a gold frame and a half-dozen of other original pictures were stolen. A book accompanied the exhibition and he asked Norman Mailer to write the text of a Marilyn's pictures anthology. The synthesis of the two (a choice of Marilyn's best pictures and a half-romanticized biography of Mailer) had a big success.

In 1980 he produced "Marilyn : the Untold Story" (New York : Gosset and Dunlap publishers, 1973), a version of Mailer's biography published in 1973.

Among his other media feats, there was Jack Ruby's last interview, the exclusive interview of a member of Charles Manson's family, the co-writing of O.J Simpson's memories.

 

Picture Otto Preminger in 1959 


 

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