Jeff Mart
1943-2009

I was in LA when I learned of the sad and untimely death of Jeff Mart, Steadicam pioneer and great-hearted friend, who inspired us all with his ingenuity and daring. 

At Cinema Products in 1977, just after the release of the Model I, we were stunned to receive a 16mm print showing an apparent madman on a bicycle, operating Steadicam while bouncing down a steep alpine meadow!  Plus the incredible footage from his CP-16! 

It was Jeff, who chose that unforgettable way to introduce himself; and ever since, he has been the hardy'mountain man' of Steadicam, meeting every challenge head-on and bringing off one impossible shot after another with heart-stopping panache. 

Jeff tamed and mastered bike shots, for example, by simply cutting off one handlebar and became legendary around the campfires in Maine and Philadelphia for his canny solutions to  Steadicam dilemmas like running up the steps of that bloody temple!

We all worried about him -- I worried for years that he was too bold, too impulsive, too vulnerable to some bit of loose gravel or slippery handhold or stupid blunder by someone else.  But I finally realized that though he was game for anything, he improved the odds with brilliant preparation, and his vitality and boldness always carried him through.

So it's heartbreakingly unexpected to learn that Jeff died 'off the clock'.  Just slipped away from us, out of our sight and hearing, to his place in our small noble pantheon along with Teddy and Bob and Andy and a few cherished others. 

Jeff, I deeply regret not having a chance to tell you how much you have meant to me and to all of us over these many years. 

Here's to you great friend.  We'll raise a glass in your honor as long as these stories are told.

Garrett Brown


Greta Mart posted this moving tribute to her father on the Steadicamforum:

"Greetings, All. My dad would be so pleased to read these kind posts, thank you. He truly loved his work and colleagues beyond compare, and recently told me he felt like the character Forrest Gump (a movie he was thrilled to work on) in that his life was comprised of one serendipitous, unbelievably lucky turn of events after another. From the moment when he was a teen-aged, neophyte photographer singled out in a crowdby JFK (who commended Dad onhis enterprising climb up the side of a brick wall to get an aerial shot); tobeing hired to shoot a promo film on the newly-built Alaskan Pipeline (perks included his own float plane, bush pilot, weeks-long employment roaming the state and a liberal expense account); to his youngest son being accepted last month to U of W medical school (my dad went into the Air Force in lieu of college).

Please, join us on Sunday, Nov. 29 at 4 p.m. at the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena (see www.uuneighborhood.org). Nothing in this world would make my dad happier than having his friends and colleagues gather around and trade stories about his Rube Goldberg equipment inventions, impossible shots, loving friendships and peerless adventures.

-Greta Mart