Rodney Charters, Cinematographer Who Shot Just About Every Episode of ’24,’ Dies at 77

Rodney Charters, the New Zealand-born cinematographer who shot all but eight episodes of the first eight seasons of the high-octane, Kiefer Sutherland-starring Fox drama 24, has died. He was 77.

Charters died suddenly on Saturday in Amsterdam, the American Society of Cinematographers announced. He received the organization’s Career Achievement in Television Award in 2013.

Before his 2001-10 stay on 24, Charters shot 57 episodes of the NBC drama The Pretender during its 1997-2000 run and 19 installments of the second season of the WB-UPN sci-fi series Roswell in 2000-01.

After 24, he worked on the first three seasons (2011-13) of the Showtime drama Shameless, the first three seasons (2012-14) of the Dallas revival at TNT and the first two seasons (2018-19) of the Magnum P.I. reboot at CBS.

Charters shot 184 episodes of Imagine Television’s 24, created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, and the 2008 telefilm 24: Redemption. Plus, he directed three of the eight installments of the show that he did not shoot.

Each real-time, 24-episode season of the kinetic 24 was known for its “aggressive camera style, which incorporated handheld, whip pans and snap zooms,” the ASC noted.

“We’ve evolved to the point where we always shoot a scene in its entirety — it’s never broken into setups,” he told American Cinematographer magazine in 2004. “We shoot two directions on every scene. We shoot one direction first, after it’s been blocked and staged by the cast privately, without even me present, which is a little uncommon in television.

“When we’re brought in, we have an understanding of what the scene is, but sometimes there are pleasant surprises. [Executive producer-director] Stephen [Hopkins] was a great one for saying, ‘Look at the scene and imagine where the camera would never be, and that’s where I want it.’”

He received Emmy nominations for his work in 2005 and ’06.

The son of a portrait photographer and filmmaker, Charters was born on Nov. 25, 1948, and grew up in the New Zealand town of New Plymouth on the west coast. More specifically, “I was raised in the darkroom,” he told American Cinematographer in 2020.

While studying at the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, Charters shot a short film that made it into the Sydney Film Festival. That helped him get accepted to the Royal College of Art in London, where Tony and Ridley Scott were classmates (he wound up doing commercials with the brothers for a spell).

Charters worked in the sound department at the BBC and served as a news and documentary cameraman based in Toronto before getting regular work as a D.P. on scripted shows including Friday the 13th — The Series, The Hat Squad and M.A.N.T.I.S.

He shot the 1996 pilot in San Francisco for Nash Bridges, which brought him to the U.S. for good, and he would work on that CBS crime show for two seasons.

His résumé included episodes of The Commish and The Last Ship and such films as Kull: The Conqueror (1997), Zach Braff’s Going in Style (2017) and The Accused (2025). He helmed installments of Friday the 13th — The Series, The Pretender, Roswell and Dallas as well.

He did not work on 24 when it returned for a ninth season, known as Live Another Day, in 2014.

Charters became a member of the ASC in 2004 after Owen Roizman, John Toll and Robert McLachlan recommended him.

Survivors include his wife, Gillian, and his children, May, Jasmin and Robin.