Peter Stackpole; Veteran Staff Photographer for Life

Peter Stackpole, 83, the last of the original four staff photographers for Life magazine. Born in San Francisco and brought up in Oakland by artist parents, Stackpole began dabbling in photography in high school. He built a home darkroom and began taking pictures for local newspapers. A key picture in 1934--a shot of President Herbert Hoover snoozing at a University of California commencement--provided his break. Although Oakland Tribune Publisher William Knowland refused to print the picture, Time magazine bought it. That success led to other assignments and to a 25-year career with Life after it was started in 1936. Stackpole joined the late Thomas McAvoy and the legendary and better-known Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White as the entire Life photo staff. Stackpole’s work graced 26 covers of the news photo magazine. He was the first to make informal photographs of film stars relaxing in their homes, giving fans more informative images than the studio portraits they were accustomed to seeing. Among those he photographed were Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, Orson Welles and Elizabeth Taylor. In 1991, Stackpole lost virtually all of his 60-year collection of negatives in the Oakland Hills fire. On Sunday in Novato, Calif., of congestive heart failure.