William D. Barber

William D. Barber is an American camera operator and cinematographer for film and television. He was an additional camera operator on, though he did not receive credit for his work.

Barber was born in in Atlanta, Georgia. His first Hollywood project was the 1975 film Night Moves, for which he was the second assistant camera operator. This film starred Kenneth Mars and Harris Yulin, both of whom would later co-star on. Barber again worked with Yulin (as well as Richard Lynch) in the 1979 film Steel. Barber's second film – also as second assistant camera – was Paramount Pictures Leadbelly, starring Albert Hall and Madge Sinclair. Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Barber worked as camera operator on such films as Smokey and the Bandit (featuring Paul Williams), Empire of the Ants (starring Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, and Robert Pine), Blue Collar (featuring Ed Begley, Jr. and Cliff DeYoung), Richard Compton's Ravagers (featuring Seymour Cassel), the Dom DeLuise comedy Hot Stuff (featuring Marc Lawrence), and the Jerry Lewis comedy Hardly Working (starring Roger C. Carmel and Susan Oliver; released in the US in 1981).

Some of the films he worked on in the 1980s include the popular comedies Caddyshack, Smokey and the Bandit 3 (again working with actor Paul Williams), Real Genius (which featured Ed Lauter), Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach (starring Rene Auberjonois, David Graf, and Matt McCoy), and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (featuring Bernie Casey, Hal Landon, Jr., Rod Loomis, J. Patrick McNamara, Dan Shor, and Jane Wiedlin). He also provided camera work on horror thrillers such as Cat People (starring Ed Begley, Jr., John Larroquette, and Malcolm McDowell) and Warlock (featuring Ian Abercrombie. Other 1980s films which made use of Barber's camera skills include the romantic drama Those Lips, Those Eyes (starring Frank Langella), the comedy Where the Boys Are '84 (featuring Christopher McDonald and Wendy Schaal), and the cult science fiction comedy Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

Barber's film credits as a camera operator in the 1990s include Paramount's The Two Jakes (featuring Perry Lopez and Tracey Walter), Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (featuring Stan Ivar, Jordan Lund, Branscombe Richmond, and Vanessa Williams), Trespass (starring Hal Landon, Jr., Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr. and William Sadler), Dave (starring Frank Langella and featuring Dan Butler, Parley Baer, Stefan Gierasch, and Stephen Root), Last Action Hero (starring F. Murray Abraham), Mr. Holland's Opus (featuring Zoe McLellan), and 2 Days in the Valley (starring Keith Carradine, Louise Fletcher, Teri Hatcher, Lawrence Tierney, and Cress Williams). He also worked on two 1993 films starring Whoopi Goldberg: Made in America and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.

In addition to First Contact, other science fiction films featuring camera work by Barber include Alien³, Demolition Man (which featured Bill Cobbs and Bob Gunton), and Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (starring Matt Frewer and Kevin Conway). He even worked on Galaxy Quest, the hit sci-fi comedy which parodies the Star Trek fanbase. His more recent science fiction projects were the films The Adventures of Pluto Nash, starring Eddie Murphy, and Timeline, starring Neal McDonough.

Barber has also operated cameras on such blockbuster films as Face/Off (featuring John Carroll Lynch and Harve Presnell), Rush Hour (featuring Tzi Ma and Mark Rolston), and Freaky Friday (featuring Rosalind Chao and Willie Garson). More recently, he worked on the acclaimed Charlie Wilson's War (featuring Cyia Batten, Pasha Lychnikoff, Rachel Nichols, Brian Markinson, and Faran Tahir) and the critically-panned Meet the Spartans (starring Diedrich Bader, Phil Morris, and Jim Nieb).

For television, Barber worked as a camera operator on such series as Miami Vice, Baywatch, and Melrose Place. He also worked on the 1993 TV movie Ambush in Waco: In the Line of Duty, whose cast included Jeff Allin, Gordon Clapp, Neal McDonough, Richard McGonagle, Glenn Morshower, Susanna Thompson, and regular Jeri Ryan. More recently, he was a camera operator on TV comedy specials such as Lewis Black: Red, White and Screwed and Jeff Dunham: Spark of Sanity.

Barber has occasionally been hired as a cinematographer, as well. His first cinematography credit was William Richert's 1998 film version of The Man in the Iron Mask, which starred Edward Laurence Albert and Meg Foster). Since then, Barber has directed photography for several episodes of the popular television series Lizzie McGuire.