1933 – 2007
Cinematographer, educated at Budapest’s Academy of Drama and Film Art in Budapest. In October 1956 Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, were documenting many acts of bravery and treachery on a streets of Budapest. Later they smuggled 30,000 feet of exposed film to Austria. In March 1957 he immigrated to the U.S.
Kovacs has compiled more than 60 narrative films credits, including Five Easy Pieces, The King of Marvin Gardens, Kind Paper Moon, Shampoo, Close Encounters of the Third, New York, New York, What’s Up Doc?, The Last Waltz, The Runner Stumbles, Ghostbusters, Mask, Little Nikita, F.I.S.T and My Best Friend’s Wedding.
In November of 1998, Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, received lifetime achievement awards recognizing his artistic contributions to advancing the art of cinematography at the Hawaii International Film Festival and at the Camerimage International Festival of the Art of Cinematography, in Torun, Poland. In 2002 he received Lifetime Achievement Award form American Society of Cinematographers, USA