Matthew F. Leonetti

Matthew Frank Leonetti A.S.C. is an American cinematographer.
Accomplished and highly prolific, he has worked on dozens of well-known and acclaimed films spanning numerous genres, including Poltergeist, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Weird Science, Jagged Edge, Strange Days, and Star Trek: First Contact.

Early life

Leonetti was born in Los Angeles, California in 1941. His father Frank was a filmmaker and cinematographer who served as a gaffer and lighting technician on low-budget B-movies like The Violent Years, Frankenstein's Daughter, and Beyond the Time Barrier.

Career

Leonetti began his career working on a number of projects with his father, serving as a camera operator on films like Adam at 6 A.M. and The Organization. He soon fell in with Jerry Jameson, a prolific television director who dabbled in feature films.
His debut as cinematographer was The Bat People, a horror B-movie directed by Jameson and starring Stewart Moss and Michael Pataki, on which he also served as an executive producer. Though the film came and went with little fanfare, it did gain a minor cult following years later after being featured on an episode Mystery Science Theater 3000. Leonetti spent much of the 1970s shooting made-for-television films directed by Jameson.
In 1979, Leonetti shot his first big-budget theatrical film in the form of the Academy Award-winning Breaking Away, directed by Peter Yates. Three years later, he shot the Academy Award-nominated [Poltergeist (1982 film)|Poltergeist], where he was responsible for creating many of the film's iconic images. This proved to be his big break, and in the following years he quickly became one of the most prolific and accomplished DPs in the film industry, shooting films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Weird Science, Commando, and Jagged Edge. In 1987, he began a collaboration with director Walter Hill, which would continue of the course of several films into the 1990s. Throughout that decade, he would work with directors like Kenneth Branagh, Kathryn Bigelow, and William Dear. His work on the cult science fiction noir [Strange Days (film)|Strange Days] earned him a nomination for Best Cinematography from the Chicago Film Critics Association. He shot two entries in the Star Trek film franchise, and served as DP on his brother John R. Leonetti's directorial debut, Mortal Kombat Annihilation.
In the early 2000s, Leonetti shot a string of blockbuster thriller and action films; including Along Came a Spider, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Rush Hour 2, and The Butterfly Effect. He shot the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, which served as the feature film debut of director Zack Snyder. Since 2006, he has mostly worked on comedy films, many of which are directed by the Farrelly Brothers. In 2015, he was the recipient of a Special Honor Prize, the President's Award, from the American Society of Cinematographers.

Personal life

Leonetti has a younger brother, John, who is himself a prolific cinematographer and occasional film director. He is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University.

Filmography

Film

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2000	Bear to the Right	Matthew F. Leonetti Jr.
2013	The Pitch	Peter Farrelly	Segments of Movie 43
2013	Truth or Dare	Peter Farrelly	Segments of Movie 43

Television

TV movies

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1974	The Elevator	Jerry Jameson
1974	Hurricane	Jerry Jameson
1974	Terror on the 40th Floor	Jerry Jameson
1974	It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy	Cy Howard
1975	The Secret Night Caller	Jerry Jameson
1975	Search for the Gods	Jud Taylor
1975	The Deadly Tower	Jerry Jameson
1975	The Lives of Jenny Dolan	Jerry Jameson
1976	High Risk	Sam O'Steen
1976	The [Call of the Wild (1976 film)\|The Call of the Wild]	Jerry Jameson
1977	The Spell	Lee Philips
1977	Flight to Holocaust	Bernard L. Kowalski
1977	The Hostage Heart	Bernard McEveety
1978	Superdome	Jerry Jameson
1978	Ruby and Oswald	Mel Stuart
1978	Special Olympics	Lee Philips	With John V. LaBarbera
1978	The Comedy Company	Lee Philips
1978	A Fire in the Sky	Jerry Jameson
1979	The [Triangle Factory Fire Scandal]	Mel Stuart
1979	Willa	Joan Darling Claudio Guzmán
1979	Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love	Glenn Jordan
1980	Turnover Smith	Bernard L. Kowalski
1981	Crazy Times	Lee Philips
1981	Stand By Your Man	Jerry Jameson
1982	Mae West	Lee Philips
1982	Hotline	Jerry Jameson
1982	E.T. and Friends: Magical Movie Visitors	Malcolm Leo Andrew Solt	Documentary film
1983	Happy	Lee Philips
1986	American Geisha	Lee Philips
1986	Under the Influence	Thomas Carter
1988	Secret Witness	Eric Laneuville

TV series

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1975	Bronk	Richard Donner	Episode "Pilot"
1976	Jigsaw John	Allen Reisner Reza Badiyi Charles S. Dubin	3 episodes
1978	The American Girls	Lee Philips	Episode "The Phoenix Connection"
1982	Tucker's Witch	Peter H. Hunt	Episode "The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon"
1983	Lottery!	Lee Philips	Episode "Being a Winner"
1984	Jessie	Richard Michaels	Episode "Pilot"
2008	Unhitched	The Farrelly Brothers	Episode "Pilot"

Literature

Kay Weniger: Das große Personenlexikon des Films, Band 4, Page 690, Berlin