Annette Sharp: Australian cinematographer and producer Rob Copping dies, aged 88

Actors Sigrid Thornton, Jack Thompson and Jacki Weaver have paid tribute to Australian cinematographer and producer Rob Copping, who died last week at age 88, writes Annette Sharp.

Copping (left) with Muhammad Ali and David Bilcock on the set of a 1977 TV ad for Soothers. Picture courtesy of Martin Copping

Actors Sigrid Thornton, Jack Thompson and Jacki Weaver have remembered Australian cinematographer and producer Rob Copping, who died last week at age 88, as a “forefather of the Australian film industry”, a mentor and friend whose work helped revive the local film industry.

Copping died on Wednesday at his aged care home at Mt Martha on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, in a week in which the nation’s arts community was also left reeling from the significant losses of singers Judith Durham, age 79, from chronic lung disease bronchiectasis, and Olivia Newton John, 73, from cancer.

Copping is best remembered for his cinematography on the 1971 film Stork, written by David Williamson, and a string of playful ’70s sex romps — Alvin Purple (1973), Alvin Rides Again (1974), Petersen (1975), The Rollicking Adventures of Eliza Frazer (1975), End Play (1976), High Rolling (1977) and the 1979 drama The Last of the Knuckleman.

Through his notable partnerships with director Tim Burstall (2000 Weeks, Kangaroo) and producers Alan Finney and David Bilcock, Copping contributed to the revival of the Australian film industry in the 1960s and ’70s with the production company Hexagon, of which he was a founding partner.

Hexagon became known for creating “recessive Oz heroes”, as Burstall once described them, and making household names of a generation of young stars including Thompson, Thornton and Weaver, along with Judy Davis, Robyn Nevin, Wendy Hughes, Graeme Blundell, Bruce Spence, Bill Hunter, Abigail, Noel Ferrier, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, George Mallaby, Gerard Kennedy, Gil Tucker, Helen Morse, Gus Mercurio, John Waters, Steve Bisley and Michael Caton.

The late cinema pioneer Rob Copping. Picture courtesy of Martin Copping

Thompson, who had one of his first lead roles in Petersen, said: “Rob’s name is synonymous with the Australian film renaissance of the late ’60s and ’70s. In those exciting early years, we were a relatively small band of young filmmakers.

“Today’s vital Australian contribution to the world of cinema, is his legacy to us all in the country he made his home.”

Copping was born in 1934 in Southend-on-Sea in Essex England in what turned out to be an unconventionally artistic family.

His younger brother, musician and songwriter Chris Copping formed a band with his school mates called Procol Harum, who found international fame with their 1970s hit The Whiter Shade of Pale.

On Friday Chris paid tribute to his brother: “Rob helped kickstart my new life and career in Australia back in 1980. Film, friends and family were so important to my brother. He was such a huge help to me and introduced me to Miles Davis and modern jazz. This planted the seed for my lifelong carer as a muso.”

Copping played a huge role in the Australian film renaissance of the late ’60s and ’70s. Pictures courtesy of Martin Copping

Copping, who had migrated to Australia in 1967, would establish Copping Film Productions, producing hundreds of TV commercials, documentaries and corporate programs for a wide variety of national and international clients.

Among those he worked with were director Fred Schepisi (Evil Angels, The Russia House), cinematographer John Seale (The English Patient, Rain Man, Cold Mountain), as well as producers Tom and Dan Burstall (sons of Tim) and Forrest Redlich.

Schepisi last week said Copping was “a truly lovely bloke, good humoured in all circumstances and encouragingly supportive of all of us when it was most needed in those early days. He will be missed”.

Copping with international star Britt Ekland. Picture courtesy of Martin Copping

Weaver, from Hollywood, said she would never forget “Rob’s beautiful cinematography”.

Thornton added she met Copping in 1977 when she met her future husband, Tom Burstall.

“I knew Rob as a dear friend. Open and generous, his kind nature always reminded me a little of my own father,” Thornton said.

“As a forefather of the Australian film industry, his creative contribution was, of course, considerable.

“The Rob I knew was an irreplaceable and beloved part of my extended family, and for that I will always be so grateful. Vale dear Rob.”

Copping’s final screen commitment occurred last year when he appeared in his son actor/writer/director Martin Copping’s award-winning Aussie film thriller, The Dunes.

Copping, who was a longstanding member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS), a member of The Society of Australian Cinema Film Pioneers and in 2004 was inducted into the ACS Hall of Fame, is survived by son Martin, brother Chris, and a large and devoted network of family and close friends.

With thanks to Jodie Harrison

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