Cinematographer, director Mac Ahlberg dies

Publish date: 2024-06-03

Worked with John Landis on films including 'Beverly Hills Cop III'

Swedish-born cinematographer and director Mac Ahlberg, who worked in both low-budget genre films and high-budget studio fare such as “Beverly Hills Cop III,” died on Oct. 26 of complications from congestive heart failure in Cupra Maritima, Italy. He was 81.

As a director of photography, Ahlberg shot dozens of features, documentaries and television productions throughout Europe including the five-part documentary “Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie.”

In 1965 he directed his first feature, the Danish erotic film “I, a Woman,” a box office success that spawned two sequels.

He moved to Los Angeles in the late ’70s and served as cinematographer on several films for producer Irwin Yablans including “Hell Night” (1981) and “The Seduction” (1984). Ahlberg was d.p. for more than 30 of producer Charles Band’s Empire and Full Moon Pictures including “Re-Animator” (1985), directed by Stuart Gordon, with whom Ahlberg worked on seven films.

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Ahlberg’s major studio projects included “Striking Distance” (1993) and “The Brady Bunch Movie” (1995); for director John Landis, he shot feature films “Oscar,” “Innocent Blood” and “Beverly Hills Cop III,” episodes of the Landis-helmed HBO series “Dream On” and the Michael Jackson video “Black or White.”

His television work also included Joe Dante’s “The Second Civil War” for HBO and “The Wonder Years” for ABC.

Born in Stockholm, Ahlberg began as a camera assistant in the 1950s.

He is survived by his wife Mary and a daughter.

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