Steadycam-Pro Filmmakers Forum :: ** Steadicam Developer Dies **

Steadycam-Pro Admin · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:41 am

CNNReported: Wednesday, June 9, 2004 Posted: 10:44 AM EDT (1444 GMT)

MALIBU, California (AP) -- Edmund DiGiulio, a Hollywood technical innovator who oversaw development of a stable filming system known as the Steadicam, has died. He was 76.

DiGiulio died at his home Friday after a long struggle with congestive heart failure, his wife, Louise, said Tuesday.

Awarded a lifetime-achievement Academy Award two years ago, DiGiulio also received three technical awards and a medal of commendation from the academy.

In the 1970s, as head of Cinema Products Corp., DiGiulio directed the creation of the Steadicam, a mounting system that provides stable images while allowing operators to move freely. The system is a staple on movie sets today.

Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown and Cinema Products' engineering staff received an Oscar for the system in 1978.

After graduating from Columbia University, DiGiulio went to work for IBM in 1950, then went to Mitchell Camera Corp., where he worked on advancements in film technology.

At Mitchell, DiGiulio developed a reflex-viewing system for movie cameras that earned him his first technical honor at the Oscars in 1969. He received technical awards for other camera and film advancements in 1993 and 1999.