Famed cinematographer Andrew Lesnie died of a heart attack on April 27th, at the age of 59. Over the course of his rich career, which lasted for over 40 years, he’d done amazing work on The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, among many others. Allegedly, the filmmaker had suffered from a serious heart condition for the past six months.

The staff at his New Zealand production house, Weta Digital, issued an official statement in which they described how saddened they are: “Our memories of Andrew will always be of a wonderful and caring person who looked out for the technicians around him, was keen to have a good laugh and keep everyone jollied along even when things were at the most stressful for everyone. What an incredible man and we are very fortunate to have had the chance to work with him on so many wonderful projects.”

The acknowledged and talented cinematographer was born in Sydney. In addition to working on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy series for director Peter Jackson, Lesnie has used his talents amazingly on blockbusters like Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and I Am Legend. After The Lord Of The Rings franchise, Lesnie continued to work alongside Jackson on King Kong, The Lovely Bones and The Hobbit trilogy. Lesnie’s final work was for Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner.

Peter Jackson hasn’t released an official statement on Lesnie’s passing yet.

Lesnie began his career as a camera assistant on 1978’s horror film Patrick and made a 1980 documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to bodybuilding in Australia. Lesnie shot music videos in the 1980s for INXS, UB40 and Mental As Anything. After finishing his studies, he frequently collaborated with director George Miller. Lesnie worked on a documentary about Miller’s popular Mad Max: Road Warrior, which actually led him to working on the Babe movies.

Andrew Lesnie won one Oscar, for the original Lord Of The Rings motion picture, The Fellowship Of The Ring. In addition to the golden statue, Lesnie was also awarded in 2003 at the BAFTA Awards for his work on the franchise’s finale, Return Of The King.