Leo Fuchs is a Hollywood veteran who spent over 40 years shooting some of the most moving and memorable images ever made of 50s and 60s film icons.
Leo Fuchs was born in Vienna to a family of pastry chefs in 1929 and moved to New York with his family at the age of ten. He sold his first picture (of Eleanor Roosevelt) for $5 when he was barely a teenager, then quit school at 14 to apprentice at Globe Photos in New York. He struck out on his own two years later, working in Broadway nightclubs and as a glamour photographer for newspapers and magazines. After serving as a Signal Corps cameraman in Germany in the early 50s, Fuchs stayed in Europe and was hired as a still photographer on his first film, Magic Fire, directed by William Dieterle.
Fuchs’ introduction to moviemaking came as one of the world’s leading “special photographers” on movie sets in Europe and North America. Starting as a freelance magazine photographer, he was one of the rare outsiders invited onto movie sets, where he often befriended actors, actresses, and filmmakers and captured candid shots both during shooting and after hours while socializing with the stars. With the support of his dear friend Cary Grant, Fuchs gave up photography in 1964 and spent the next 20 years as a motion picture producer.
Fuchs' photographs of Hollywood’s undisputed heyday are collected for the first time in Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer from the Golden Age of Hollywood, along with a rare essay by photography great, Bruce Weber. Film icons Rock Hudson, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Sean Connery, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, and never-before-published photographs of To Kill a Mockingbird’s Harper Lee as well as such legendary directors as Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Fred Zinnemann, and Alfred Hitchcock all appear unguarded—unlike any other photographs of the era. These images are complemented by pages of insider details taken from the recorded remembrances of Leo Fuchs himself.
He came out with book recently. Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer offers never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes photographs of the glamorous world of post-war Hollywood. It serves as a valuable piece of history and a reference for the style, attitudes, and personalities of the dream factory’s elite that define modern-day celebrity. With a career spent steadily rising through the ranks of production, from outsider to boss, Leo Fuchs saw it all. Now his personal vision has been captured for the world to enjoy in Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer.
Here are multiple images of the young Paul Newman on the set of 'Cool Hand Luke', extended images of Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson with Doris Day and alone, Gregory Peck in his stills for 'To Kill A Mockingbird', Shirley MacLaine as 'Irma la Douce' and as Shirley alone, director Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Sinatra among others. The manner in which he was able to make his actors relax and be comical for the camera is unmatched. These are both serious and entertaining images that will rescue memories of the days when Hollywood represented entertainment!
Marlon Brando
Tony Curtis
Audrey Hepburn
Tippi Hedren
Alfred Hitchcock
Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin
Brigitte Bardot
His book with cover of Paul Newman.
Frank Sinatra
Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
Rock Hudson
Gina Lollabrigida
Cary Grant
Sean Connery
James Gardner
Leslie Caron
Steve McQueen
Gregory Peck
Shirley MacLaine with daughter Sacha.
Shirley with Jack Lemmon
The photographer himself with Gina Lollabrigida.
And at work.
And now for my own personal private guilty pleasure.... The many photos he took of MacLaine and Lemmon for Irma La Douce:
