A cinematographer, Murphy had a hard time breaking into Hollywood. “My wife don’t drive a car, and you’re not going to operate a camera,” she remembers a union official told her. “You’ll get in over my dead body.” So how did she become the first female member of the Cinematographers Guild in 1973? “Well, he died,” Murphy said much later.
She went on to win Emmy Awards in 1978, 1981, 1985 and 1987, and an Academy Award in 1982. In 1980, she was invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers, and was its only female member for 15 years. (Even today, with her death, there are still only five.)
“Brianne Murphy should be remembered for her artful cinematography in such classic television series as Little House on the Prairie, Trapper John, M.D., Highway to Heaven, Father Murphy, and In the Heat of the Night,” said ASC President Richard Crudo. Murphy died August 20 from brain cancer at home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She was 70.