Gary Graver (a.k.a Robert McCallum), a veteran director, producer and cinematographer, died on Thursday at the age 68. He died at his home in Rancho Mirage, after a battle with cancer.
Graver was known and respected in both mainstream and adult circles alike, as he had the occasion to work with seasoned mainstream greats such as Orson Welles and adult industry veterans like John Holmes.
While Graver was working on A and B Hollywood movies, he also had a successful career as a director of hardcore adult films, directing scores of pornographic titles using the pseudonym "Robert McCallum.”
Graver started making adult title to finance his mainstream films. His first hardcore film was Three A.M. (Cal Vista) in 1975 and many more followed, through 1998. Graver received a lot of praise for his earlier work and several AVN Awards for classic titles such as Garage Girls (Cal Vista), Amanda by Night (Caballero) and Peaches and Cream (Essex).
Graver was Welles' director of photography on the films F is for Fake, Filming Othello, It's All True, and The Other Side of The Wind, a movie Welles left unfinished at his death in 1985 and which Graver unsuccessfully tried to bring to the screen up until his own passing.
"He was a maverick cameraman who could do anything," Curtis Harrington, a director who made the 2002 film Usher with Graver, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "He also was very close to Orson, who recognized his wonderful qualities as a human being."
In addition, Graver shot several low-budget movies for cult horror director Roger Corman, and filmed the 1977 directorial debut of Ron Howard, Grand Theft Auto.
McCullam is survived by his wife Jillian, mother Frances, brother Geoff, sons Sean and Chris, nephew Adam, granddaughters Nicole and Stephanie and many others.
