Eric Van Haren Noman

Eric Van Haren Noman is one of television's most prolific cinematographers. Between the years of 1980 and 2001, he served as the director of photography on over 50 television films (or telefilms). He has been nominated for three American Society of Cinematographer Awards and two Emmy Awards, and has shot some of the most memorable films on television, from a biopic of the Menendez brothers to the collaboration of Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins, Debbie Reynolds, and Elizabeth Taylor in These Old Broads (2000). Born in Holland, Van Haren Noman began his career in England as a camera assistant. He eventually became a camera operator himself, working on numerous documentaries as well as full-length features. Van Haren Noman was shooting a sports report at the infamous 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, when the Israeli Olympic team fell prey to Palestinian terrorists. His footage of the tragedy earned Van Haren Noman an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sports Programming. In the early '80s, Van Haren Noman relocated to the United States, where he served as a camera operator on both Friday the 13th, Pt. 2 in 1982 and Friday the 13th, Pt. 3: 3D in 1983 before moving up to cinematography. Following his first telefilm, Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story, in 1986, Van Haren Noman became television's most sought after director of photography. He worked steadily through the end of the decade, shooting several more television films. Among them, Lena: My 100 Children (1987) and Cry for Help: The Tracy Thurman Story (1989) were nominated by the American Society of Cinematography for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Movies of the Week. Van Harem Noman's dark telefilm about a kidnapped boy, I Know My Name Is Steven (1989), still receives regular airplay. In the '90s, the cinematographer simply tightened his stranglehold on television films by building an eclectic oeuvre with a disparate group of stars and subjects. In 1993, he photographed Trouble Shooters: Trapped Beneath the Earth starring country singer/actor Kris Kristofferson. In 1994, he shot Out of Darkness, which featured Diana Ross as an aging schizophrenic, and Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills. 1995 saw him shooting the Western Tecumseh: The Last Warrior starring former Fame star Jesse Borrego. In 1996, he worked with both Marilu Henner and Stockard Channing on My Son Is Innocent and An Unexpected Family, respectively. In 1997, he photographed the Hilary Swank vehicle The Sleepwalker Killing, which focused on the true story of a man who killed his in-laws in his sleep. That same year, he received an Emmy nod for his contribution to What the Deaf Man Heard. This Hallmark Hall of Fame drama, which starred Matthew Modine, was the highest rated television film of its year. He concluded the decade with Take My Advice: The Ann and Abby Story (1999), a biopic of identical twins and rival advice columnists Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren. The millennium ushered in a host of new projects for Van Haren Noman, as more and more movie stars drifted toward telefilms. He joined forces again with Stockard Channing for The Truth About Jane, in which the actress portrayed a mother coming to terms with her teenage daughter's homosexuality. Soon afterward, Van Haren Noman landed his biggest job: working with screenwriters Carrie Fisher and Elaine Pope, and the aforementioned four illustrious actresses on the comedy These Old Broads (2000). According to Van Haren Noman, a camera is just a camera and it can be easily mastered by anyone with a modicum of technical knowledge. But cinematography, he contends, is about artistic vision, which, as his career proves, is alive and well in television.

~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide