Biography
Ward Russell is an American cinematographer and photographer. He trained in theatrical lighting design at the University of Kansas and began working in film in the late 1970s, progressing through roles as best boy and gaffer before becoming a chief lighting technician on several Tony Scott films, including Top Gun (1986) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987).
He served as director of photography on Days of Thunder (1990) and The Last Boy Scout (1991), both directed by Scott, as well as Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996), the television film The X-Files (1998), Unstoppable (2004) and Cruel World (2005). His other credits include second-unit and camera-operator work. Russell retired from feature films around 2007 and now works as a still photographer, operating a studio and gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife, production coordinator Mary Cay Hollander.
