Innovative filmmaker Richard Leacock dies

Richard Leacock, a documentary filmmaker and pioneer of the unobtrusive camera technique cinema verite who followed John F. Kennedy on his presidential campaign and was seen by some as the grandfather of reality television, has died at age 89.

Leacock died in Paris on Wednesday, said one of his daughters, Victoria Leacock Hoffman, of New York. He had been in declining health and had taken several recent falls, she said in an email.

Leacock's technical acumen supplied the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut with the tools of their trade. His insightful direction laid the groundwork for generations of filmmakers seeking to use their cameras to capture real life as it happened, colleagues said.

"He had a poetic eye behind the camera, which gave him access to anybody because they sensed they could trust him," said documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who first worked with Leacock on "Primary," the seminal documentary that followed JFK's presidential campaign in Wisconsin.

Maysles said that when he thought of Leacock, the cinematographer on "Primary," he had two images: "a wonderful, loving face and his hands."

"I could see his hands on the camera, cradling it in such a way that he could take good care of the people he was filming," Maysles said.

Leacock, born in London, made his name as an innovator.

"He was the first one to do what we call 'Reality TV,' " said Bob Doyle, a Cambridge, Mass.-based inventor who knew Leacock and maintains a website in his honor. "He was famous for making documentary films which captured people being very natural.

"But he had a critical eye that exposed weakness or insights into people he was filming."

Besides his daughter, Leacock is survived by his wife, Valerie Lalond, and four other children: Elspeth Leacock, Robert Leacock, David Leacock, and Claudia Leacock.