Robert F. “Bobby” Liu, ASC and Isidore Mankofsky, ASC will be in the spotlight at the 23rd Annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards here on February 15, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. Liu will receive the ASC Career Achievement in Television Award and Mankofsky will receive the ASC Presidents Award.
“Bobby Liu and Isidore Mankofsky have earned the respect of their peers with their achievements as cinematographers and devotion to advancing the art form,” says ASC President Daryn Okada. “Against all odds they achieved their aspirations of becoming cinematographers and are an inspiration to every filmmaker with unrealized dreams.”
Liu was born in Shanghai in 1926. He began his career working with Chinese filmmaking pioneer Chuang Kuo Chuen. Liu subsequently earned a master’s degree in cinema studies from the University of Southern California. He returned to Taiwan and taught filmmaking before he immigrated to the United States in 1966. Liu’s Hollywood career started on the camera crews of such television classics as Gunsmoke, The Rockford Files and Columbo, where he worked with some of the industry’s top cinematographers. As a cinematographer, Liu earned Emmy nominations for Lou Grant in 1982 and Family Ties in 1989. He compiled dozens of additional credits on such television series as The Nanny, The Martin Short Show and Hardcastle & McCormick.
“My life has been one miracle after another,” says Liu. “I’m thankful to so many of my colleagues who helped me along the way. As a boy, I never thought I’d be able to work in Hollywood, but a dream doesn’t cost anything. I’m proud of being born Chinese, but I am deeply grateful to have been adopted by this great country, the United States. I mean that from my heart. This award is another miracle.”
The Career Achievement in Television Award has been presented previously to George Spiro Dibie, ASC and Donald M. Morgan, ASC.
Mankofsky began his career making documentaries and shooting newsfilm at a television station in Reno, Nevada. He made over 100 educational films at Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Films before segueing into narrative filmmaking. His credits consist of over 100 films, including The Jazz Singer, The Muppet Movie, Somewhere In Time, The Burning Bed and Better Off Dead. Mankofsky earned three Emmy and three ASC Award nominations for his work on Polly, Afterburn, Davy Crockett: Rainbow in the Thunder, and Love, Lies and Murder, the latter of which took top honors in the ASC television mini-series competition in 1992.
“I’m surprised and pleased that the ASC is recognizing my body of work,” says Mankofsky. “I came up on a different path than many, and the result is that I’ve always done things my own way. Membership in the ASC was always one of my career goals, so this honor means a lot to me.”
The Presidents Award has been given to a diverse range of individuals who have
made significant contributions to the art of filmmaking. Mankofsky joins a list that includes Robert Duvall; visual effects pioneers Linwood Dunn, ASC, Douglas Trumbull, and Richard Edlund, ASC; Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown; camera designers Tak Miyagishima and Albert Mayer, Jr.; filmmaker Albert Maysles; and cinematographers Guy Green, BSC, Ralph Woolsey, ASC, and Woody Omens, ASC, among others.
“Both Bobby and Isidore are more than just talented cinematographers,” says Awards Committee Chairman Michael Goi, ASC. “They also commit a great deal of time to the ASC’s educational activities, and they work tirelessly to keep the organization strong and vital in the era of technical evolution.”
The ASC was chartered in January 1919. There are currently some 300 active members of the organization who have national roots in some 20 countries. There are also 150 associate members from sectors of the industry that support the art and craft of filmmaking. Membership and associate membership is by invitation based on contributions that individuals have made to advance the art of visual storytelling.
For more information, visit www.theasc.com.
