Biography
Gabriel Figueroa Mateos (24 April 1907 – 27 April 1997) was a Mexican cinematographer. He worked on more than 200 films across Mexican cinema and Hollywood productions over five decades.
He began in the industry in the early 1930s as a stills photographer and made his debut as cinematographer on Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936). Figueroa collaborated extensively with director Emilio Fernández on around twenty films and with Luis Buñuel on several, including Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned, 1950), Nazarín (1959), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Simon of the Desert (1965). His Hollywood credits include The Fugitive (1947) for John Ford and The Night of the Iguana (1964) for John Huston, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.
Figueroa won multiple Ariel Awards for cinematography and the Golden Ariel for lifetime achievement in 1987. He also received awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals and the American Society of Cinematographers International Award in 1995.
