Posted on 04/18/2004 4:27:59 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) - Rex Simpson Hardy, one of Life magazine's first photographers and later a naval pilot during World War II, has died. He was 88. Hardy died of cancer on April 7 in Monterey, Calif., according to his son, Tom.
One of a handful of photographers hired by Life magazine in 1936 for its first year of publication, Hardy gained attention for an Aug. 22, 1938 cover photo of Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire. He went on to photograph many Hollywood stars, including Harpo Marx, James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable.
Some of Hardy's most memorable photographs were spontaneous ones. The cover photo of Rogers and Astaire was snapped during a rehearsal at a movie set. A cover photo featuring Harpo Marx was taken at a party when the bald performer was caught without his wig.
"He didn't have his wig and was sensitive about his baldness, so he made a little crown of leaves and put it on," Hardy told John Loengard for his 1998 book, "Life Photographers: What They Saw." "I snapped his picture, and again to my surprise, there was Marx posing like a Roman Emperor on Life's cover."
At Life, Hardy worked alongside many star photographers of the time, including Peter Stackpole, Carl Mydans, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen.
Hardy was still in his senior year at Stanford University when a friend who was opening a Los Angeles office for Life magazine hired him at $30 a week in 1936. Hardy worked out of Los Angeles and New York until 1939, when he decided to join the Navy and fulfill a dream to become a naval pilot.
He was sent to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, where he flew as the commander of a B-24 bomber equipped with mapping cameras.
"They would be escorted into enemy territory, then drop flash bombs that would light up the area to be photographed, to be turned into maps later on," said Hardy's son, Tom Hardy. "Of course once the target was lit up, it was important to take the shots and then get away as quickly as possible, usually chased by angry Japanese fighter planes or anti-aircraft fire."
Hardy stayed in aviation for the rest of his life, going on to work for Northrop, Lockheed and NASA.
In addition to his son Tom of San Francisco, Hardy is survived by his wife of 52 years, Jan; four other children, Carol Hardy of Port Townsend, Wash.; Lucia Hardy of Eugene, Ore.; Wendy Keedy of Riverside, Calif.; and Pip Hardy of Cambridge, England; and a sister, Alice Grady of Laguna Niguel.
excerpt - He flew PBY Catalinas on anti-submarine patrol in the Caribbean and photo reconnaissance in PB4Ys, more commonly known as B-24 Liberators, in advance of all Pacific campaigns, including Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.
Saint-Exupery mystery solved: Little Prince author's plane found crashed off Marseille, Expatica.com, April 7, 2004, AP, posted to Free Republic by aculeus, April 6, 2004.
Saint-Exupery mystery solved: Little Prince author's plane found crashed off Marseille, Expatica.com, April 7, 2004, AP, posted to Free Republic by aculeus, April 6, 2004.
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