AP Features, June 4th, 2007
Wallace Seawell, a photographer who snapped portraits of such Hollywood stars as Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn and George Burns during a career spanning more than 60 years, has died. He was 90.
Seawell died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his friend, publicist Alan Eichler.
Born in Atlanta in 1916, Seawell originally wanted to become a portrait painter. He was accepted at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he graduated with honors in 1940. Seawell then became chief set designer and fashion photographer at the Eastman Fashion Studio in New York.
He moved to Los Angeles after World War II when he produced and designed nearly 50 training films for the Army Signal Corps. He also joined the studio of Paul Hesse, a leading West Coast photographer.
Seawell also began working for movie studios and fan magazines, photographing Lucille Ball, Doris Day and other stars.
"He was a very well-respected photographer," actor Robert Wagner told the Los Angeles Times, recalling Seawell had photographed him and Natalie Wood as a young married couple. "He was very forthright, and you felt very comfortable with him; he was at the top of his game."
Seawell's reputation also helped him shoot portraits of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the duke and duchess of Windsor, and the king and queen of Thailand. He also took photos for record albums by artists Johnny Mathis, Diana Ross and Peggy Lee.
He also took photos for record albums by Johnny Mathis, Diana Ross and Peggy Lee.
Seawell's subjects enjoyed his work so much that many of them became his friends, said Ron Avery, president of the Motion Picture and Television Photo Archive, which owns Seawell's photographs.
"Wally was a very dapper dresser, a very proper and well-mannered man, and he had a way of working with celebrities that he photographed so that he got really wonderful expressions and poses out of these people," Avery said.
