Supermarionation cinematographer Julien Lugrin, who worked on 140 episodes across all seven Supermarionation television series, died from heart failure on 22nd July. As a young man, Lugrin had lost the use of his legs to polio and was consequently only able to walk with the aid of crutches. He joined AP Films in 1960 as a camera operator on Supercar and continued in this role throughout the production of Fireball XL5 and Stingray. He was promoted to lighting cameraman for Thunderbirds, supervising the cinematography on the puppet unit’s ‘B’ stage for many of the series’ most popular episodes – Terror In New York City, The Cham-Cham, Atlantic Inferno and Path Of Destruction among them. Lugrin went on to act as lighting cameraman on all three of the Century 21 Supermarionation series, lensing the pilot episodes of both Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons and Joe 90 as well as the very last Supermarionation production – the final episode of The Secret Service, More Haste Less Speed.
Originally published in FAB 50.