Jonas Gricius, one of Lithuania's best-known cinematographers, passed away aged 92.
His death in the early hours of Monday was confirmed to LRT.lt by his son Augustinas Gricius.
Jonas Gricius (1928–2021) was known for his work on a number of Lithuanian classical films starting from the late 1950s, including Nobody Wanted to Die (Niekas nenorėjo mirti, directed by Vytautas Žalakevičius, 1966) and The Girl and the Echo (Paskutinė atostogų diena, directed by Arūnas Žebriūnas, 1965).
Gricius graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow and worked at Lenfilm studio before joining the Lithuanian Film Studio in Vilnius. He was the head of the studio throughout the 1980s and chaired the Lithuanian Union of Cinematographers.
His credits include films directed by Žalakevičius, Žebriūnas, Raimondas Vabalas (Stairway to Heaven, 1966) and Grigory Koznitsev (Hamlet, 1964, King Lear, 1971).
Gricius was the cinematographer for the 1976 Soviet-American production The Blue Bird, directed by George Cukor and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, and Ava Gardner.
Gricius received a number of awards for his work, including the title of an honorary professor at the VGIK and a Commander's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.
He received a Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize in 2013.
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