Jeffrey Lane Kimball, ASC (born 29 May 1943; age 81) is an American cinematographer who was Director of Photography on Star Trek Nemesis. He hails from Wichita, Kansas and has been an active member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1990.
Work for Paramount and Tony Scott[]
Besides Nemesis, Kimball has directed photography on several other films from Paramount Pictures, most recently 2000's Mission: Impossible II and 2003's Paycheck. Kimball earned a Golden Satellite Award nomination for Best Cinematography for Mission: Impossible II.
His first film for Paramount was Top Gun (1986), followed by Beverly Hills Cop II (1987, starring Eddie Murphy, with Ronny Cox, Darryl Henriques, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr., Paul Guilfoyle, Dean Stockwell and Valerie Wildman). He worked with Scott again on two more films, 1990's Revenge (which featured Miguel Ferrer in the cast) and 1993's True Romance (starring Christian Slater and Saul Rubinek). He also worked with Scott on a number of commercials.
Additional credits[]
Kimball's first cinematographic credit was Hell Raiders (1965, starring Star Trek: The Original Series guest actor Richard Webb), followed by the documentary On the Line in 1971. He then served as second unit director of photography for It's Alive (1974, featuring Michael Ansara) and Cat People (1982, starring Malcolm McDowell, Ed Begley, Jr., and John Larroquette). During this time, however, he was primarily working on commercials. He then became the director of photography on The Legend of Billie Jean (1985, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal and starring Christian Slater and Dean Stockwell). His other credits as cinematographer include Jacob's Ladder (1990), Wild Things (1998), Stigmata (1999), Windtalkers (2002), Be Cool (2005), and Glory Road (2006).
He also worked on Old Dogs (2009, featuring music by John Debney) and the comedy Four Christmases for New Line Cinema. He also shot The Expandables (2010, starring, co-written by, and directed by Sylvester Stallone and featuring music by Brian Tyler. Kimball is also attached to a drama directed by John McTiernan called The Camel Wars.
Other Trek connections[]
Another cinematographer who has worked frequently with Tony Scott is Dan Mindel. Interestingly, Mindel was the Director of Photography on Mission: Impossible III, the sequel to Mission: Impossible II, which Kimball shot. Mindel also shot 2009's Star Trek, following Kimball's work on the previous Trek film, Nemesis. Both Mission: Impossible III and the upcoming Star Trek are directed by J.J. Abrams and both films are part of a franchise based on a television series originally produced by Desilu.
Two of Kimball's camera operators on True Romance were Ray De La Motte and Michael Genne, while Dennis Seawright was an assistant cameraman and Frank Parrish was a camera loader.
Many members of Kimball's camera crew on Nemesis have worked frequently with Kimball; first assistant cameramen Ken Nishino, Daniel Nichols, and Don Steinberg, second assistant cameramen Dale White and Lynda Wu, second unit photographer Flemming Olsen, and camera operators Gregory Lundsgaard, Leo Napolitano, and Greg Schmidt have all collaborated with Kimball on numerous other occasions.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock camera operator David Nowell was Kimball's Director of Aerial Photography on four of his films: Top Gun (1986), Curly Sue (1991), Wild Things (1998), and The Big Bounce (2004).