Ralf D. Bode

German-born cinematographer Ralf D Bode immigrated to the USA in 1954 and gravitated to filmmaking in the US Army Signal Corps. After working as a gaffer and lighting designer for director John G Avildsen, he graduated to director of photography duties on a spate of minor films before evoking the gritty, sweaty milieu of disco New York in John Badham's "Saturday Night Fever" (1977). His first collaboration with director Michael Apted, "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980), brought him acclaim (and an Oscar nomination) for his effective use of Kentucky and Tennessee locations to evoke the hardscrabble beginnings of country singer Loretta Lynn. In his next pairing with Apted ("Gorky Park" 1983), he helped make Helsinki stand in for Moscow, presenting a plausible portrait of life in the then-current Soviet Union. Bode's films with Apted include two feature documentaries, "Bring on the Night" (1985) and "The Long Way Home," and he also made his directing debut in 1993 for (executive producer) Apted with an episode ("The Harvest") of the ABC series "Crossroads."