Brianne Murphy made the breakthrough for women in Hollywood when, in 1980, she became the first female to join the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since it was founded 61 years earlier.
She was born to American parents in London on April 1 1933. On the outbreak of war the family returned to the US where she attended Brown University before going to New York to study acting. By the mid 1950s Murphy was in Hollywood working for the low-budget horror film producer Jerry Warren.
Murphy acted in some of the films playing the Yeti in Man Beast and the female lead in Teenage Zombies. But her heart wasn't in acting and she took the opportunity to learn to be a camera operator, editor, and director of photography. She earned her first director of photography credit in 1962 for Panchito Y El Gringo.
She got her break in television when NBC hired her to make a documentary on the women's movement. She recalled that ''the ladies involved insisted on a woman director of photography, which gave NBC a field of one to choose from''.
A string of further documentaries followed and in 1973 Murphy was admitted to the cinematographers guild in Hollywood. She said that one union official told her: ''My wife don't drive a car and you're not going to operate a camera. You'll get in over my dead body''. ''Well,'' Murphy said, ''he died.''
During the 1970s and 80s she worked as director of photography on a number of TV series including Little House on the Prairie, Trapper John MD, and Breaking Away. In 1980, she became the first woman director of photography on a major Hollywood studio film, Fatso, directed by Anne Bancroft.
That same year she was admitted to the ASC and for the next 15 years she was the only female member of the society. There are now five women members of the 265-member organisation.
Brianne Murphy was
married to and divorced Jerry Warren.
She died on August 20, aged 70. She is survived by her half-sister Sandra Dresdner.
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