lawrence schiller

Despite a childhood accident that left him with impaired vision in one eye, Lawrence Schiller became an obsessive photographer. While attending Pepperdine College, his photographs appeared in prominent publications such as Life, Sport, Playboy, Glamour, and the Saturday Evening Post. Schiller’s interests and ambitions soon led him into print journalism, where he documented major stories for glossy magazines worldwide, including Life, Look, Newsweek, Time, Paris Match, Stern, and the London Sunday Times. His iconic images of Robert F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bette Davis, Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, and Madame Nhu testify to his tenacity, ingenuity, charm, and technical skill.

In November 1963, while on assignment for the Saturday Evening Post, Schiller arrived in Dallas in time to photograph Lee Harvey Oswald. He later secured Jack Ruby’s final interview. Following extensive interviews with Lenny Bruce’s widow in 1968, Schiller, along with writer Albert Goldman, published Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce (1974). Additionally, he collaborated with photographer W. Eugene Smith to produce Minamata (1975), an epic pictorial chronicle of mercury poisoning in Japan.

Schiller transitioned into motion pictures by directing portions of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and Lady Sings the Blues (1972), starring Diana Ross. In 1971, he produced and co-directed the acclaimed documentary The American Dreamer on Dennis Hopper with L.M. Kit Carson. His editorial direction of The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1972) contributed to its Oscar win for Best Feature Documentary. In 1986, after securing unprecedented cooperation from the Kremlin, he executive produced and co-directed the Emmy Award-winning television miniseries Peter the Great, featuring Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Schiller’s career was his collaboration with Norman Mailer, a unique friendship in American literary history. Over nearly thirty-five years, they worked closely on several books, including Marilyn (1973), The Faith of Graffiti (1974), Oswald’s Tale (1995), Into the Mirror (2002), and The Executioner’s Song (1979), for which Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize. Schiller conceived the project, conducted much of the legwork, interviews, and research, and secured exclusive access to the book’s subject, Gary Gilmore. He also produced and directed the award-winning television miniseries based on the book, starring Tommy Lee Jones.

Schiller has served as a consultant for NBC News, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and Annie Leibovitz Studios, among other photographic archives. He has also contributed to publications such as The New Yorker and The Daily Beast. After Norman Mailer died in 2008, Schiller was named the President and Co-Founder of the Norman Mailer Center and Writer’s Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Currently, he advises various estates and trusts on monetizing and preserving the legacy of notable American figures.

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