John Bartley dead: Award-winning Hollywood cameraman who worked on The X Files dies

Emmy Award-winning cameraman John Bartley has died aged 78, his close friend has revealed.

The New Zealand-born cinematographer, who worked on The X-Files, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. His friend, Polly Pierce, confirmed the tragic news on social media.

"It's with such a heavy heart to write that my long-time mentor and dear friend, the cinematographer John S Bartley ASC CSC, has passed on," the Australian filmmaker said. "If it wasn't for John and his landmark work on @thexfilestv I wouldn't be in film."

John worked on the first three series of The X-Files and received three ASC Award nominations and two Primetime Emmy nominations for his work on the popular series, winning the Emmy in 1996 for the episode 'Grotesque'.

He received more Emmy nominations for episodes of Lost and Bates Motel. The cinematographer was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to a career Army officer and a theatre cashier.

His father died suddenly, aged 53, when John was only 12. After his death, John and his brother would join their mum at work, sitting at the ticket booth until she finished her shift.

They were sometimes allowed to watch the shows on stage, with musicals being their favourite. When broadcast television arrived in his city in 1960, only one channel was provided to the people.

"It was movies that fascinated me. Cinerama was big at the time, and we took school trips to the theatre," John previously said.

After finishing high school, John apprenticed with an electrician and soon moved to Sydney, where he found work as a lighting director in theatre and television.

John said in 2011: "I was really lucky. I didn’t know anything about television, but two lighting technicians at the station taught me what I needed to know. Television was black-and-white in those days, and I learned how to use light to accentuate black-and-white tones … to help tell stories on television screens.”

When he moved to Canada two years later, he found a job at rental house William F. White International, Inc., and soon got to know filmmakers.

John went on to work on the likes of The X Files: I Want to Believe, Odd Girl Out, Another Life, The Chronicles of Riddick, Wrong Turn, Echo, Another Stakeout, Disturbing Behaviour and more.

For television, he's credited as working on The Good Doctors, Vikings, Los, Roswell, Wu Assassins, 21 Jump Street, and Booker.

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