Alec Mills Dies: Camera Operator And Cinematographer On James Bond Films Was 91

Alec Mills, a camera operator on five James Bond films before becoming a cinematographer on the Timothy Dalton-starring The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, has died at 91.

Mills died on Monday, his son, Simon Mills, announced to the trade. He was living in an assisted care home in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, he said.

Mills operated a camera on Peter Hunt’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Lewis Gilbert’s The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), and John Glen’s For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Octopussy (1983).

Glen then tapped him as his director of photography on The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989).

Mills also was a camera operator on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1969), Roman Polanski’s Tragedy of Macbeth (1971), Gulliver’s Travels (1973), John Guillermin’s Death on the Nile (1978) and Richard Marquand’s Eye of the Needle (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1982).

Mills helped found the Guild of British Technicians in 1978 and served on the board of governors of the British Society of Cinematographers from 1998-2009.

Survivors include his wife, Suzy, an assistant director whom he married in 1977.