Ernie Vincze 1942-2024

Thursday, 17 October 2024 - Reported by Marcus

TARDIS Tales - Ernie Vincze (Credit: BBC)The cinematographer Ernie Vincze has died at the age of 81.

Ernie Vincze was the Director of Photography on 38 episodes of Doctor Who between 2005 and 2009, responsible for the Camera work and the lighting on each episode.

He was in charge for the entire first series of the revived show in 2005 looking after each episode of the Ninth Doctor's era before completing the Christmas special introducing the Tenth Doctor.   

He shared the load over the next three years, with his final episode, The Waters of Mars, in 2009.

His Doctor Who episodes were  

Rose; The End Of The World; The Unquiet Dead; Aliens of London / World War Three; Dalek; The Long Game; Father's Day; The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances; Boom Town; Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways; The Christmas Invasion; New Earth; School Reunion; Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel; The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit; Army of Ghosts / Doomsday; Smith and Jones; The Shakespeare Code; Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks; 42; Blink; Utopia; The Lost Boy[SJA]; Voyage of the Damned; Partners in Crime; The Fires of Pompeii; The Doctor's Daughter; Midnight; The Stolen Earth / Journey's End; The Next Doctor; The Waters of Mars

Ernie Vincze was born in Hungary in 1942. He spent most of his working life in Britain with over 80 credits. Some of his best-known work includes Jeeves and Wooster, Holby City, Robin Hood, Macbeth, Screen Two and The South Bank Show. 

He was elected to the British Society of Cinematographers in 1978, and is a fellow of the BKSTS. He served on the BAFTA council for 20 years, and was Head of Cinematography at the NFTS from 2000 - 2002

He won the 2008 Cymru BAFTA for his work on Doctor Who: Voyage Of The Damned

Showrunner Russell T Davies paid tribute to Vincze on Instagram

He was our DOP on Series 1 & 2 of Doctor Who, back in 2005, lighting the whole of S1 himself! And what a lovely man. He was always smiling, always happy to see you. Freezing nights on The Empty Child, mad ambition on The Parting of the Ways… and there was Ernie, smiling! Hungarian-born, he had hell of a career, working on Escape from Sobibor, and with Madonna on Shanghai Surprise. And we must’ve looked like squawking chickens to him in those first weeks, but he smiled, and helped us, and we loved him. Night, Ernie, thanks darling