The family of Phil Stern announced today that no funeral service will be held for the photographer famed for his work during World War II as well as portraits of Hollywood’s elite, but they asked for donations to compete a documentary about his life.
Stern died Saturday at age 95 at the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles.
“The Stern family will sorely miss his presence, which ever so dramatically enhanced our lives,” according to the family. “In keeping with his wishes, we are in the process of having his body donated to medical research. As a pillar of practicality, he said, ‘I want to be disposed of in the most practical manner possible.’
“We will be receiving his ashes in six to eight weeks and will spread them behind our house in Agoura Hills amongst other family members,” according to the family.
The family noted that a documentary about Stern’s work has been in the works for more than six years, and they asked for donations to complete the project, noting that any money generated by the completed project would be donated to pancreatic cancer research. Stern’s daughter, Lata, died of pancreatic cancer in 2008.
The family has established a PayPal account for donations. Information is available by contacting psternfoto@gmail.com.
Stern was a friend of movie stars from Marilyn Monroe to Frank Sinatra, who personally hired Stern as the official photographer of President John Kennedy’s Inaugural Ball in 1961. Stern thus became the official photographer of the “Camelot” era at the White House.
Born Sept. 3, 1919, in Philadelphia, Stern became a teenage photographer for the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper. As a young man, he joined Darby’s Rangers — the original U.S. Army Ranger brigade created following the nation’s entry into World War II.
Of the original 1,500 members of Darby’s Rangers, only 199 survived the war. Stern was among the last 10 survivors.
While in the Army, Stern worked for the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, he became one of Life magazine’s top Hollywood photographers.
Stern’s 1939 portrait of a tired couple from Oklahoma, trying to cross the border into California in their battered Ford truck, became an iconic image of the Great Depression. The photo ran on the cover of Friday magazine.
Along the way, Stern also photographed a multitude of great jazz musicians. Impresario Norman Granz insisted Stern take all the cover photos for his Pablo Records label, including shots of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum and Ella Fitzgerald.
After gaining a reputation for making idols out of the ordinary soldier on the battlefield, Stern proved adept at catching the human side of many Hollywood greats.
Stern became famous for his photos of the likes of James Dean, Spencer Tracy, Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as John Wayne and Monroe.
