Los Angeles Actor Headshots: The Two Villains of Shawshank, Bob Gunton and Clancy Brown

Three decades on, The Shawshank Redemption still sits at the top of the public's list of the greatest films ever made, and much of its menace belongs to two men: Bob Gunton's Warden Norton, all scripture and quiet corruption, and Clancy Brown's Captain Hadley, the muscle behind him. Both have now sat before my camera in Los Angeles, and it seemed right to put the two sittings side by side.

Los Angeles Actor Headshots: The Two Villains of Shawshank, Bob Gunton and Clancy Brown (Rory Lewis Photographer LA Actors Headshots)

Two very different faces, and two very different headshots.

Bob Gunton I photographed in profile against a deep blue ground, in hard, sculptural light. It is the oldest form of portrait there is, the profile Piero della Francesca gave the Duke of Urbino, and it suits a face built like his: the brow, the set of the jaw, nothing softened. Turned to camera in a black jacket, the same face becomes something else altogether, an unblinking stare with the Warden still somewhere behind it.

Los Angeles Actor Headshots: The Two Villains of Shawshank, Bob Gunton and Clancy Brown (Rory Lewis Photographer LA Actors Headshots)

Clancy Brown, by contrast, I lit softly: a three-quarter study with the arms folded and the white hair and beard catching the light, then a plain headshot in a blue shirt against grey, with a smile the Captain would never have permitted.

That is really the point of a good actor headshot. The frame has to hold the whole range, the villain and the man, so that a casting director sees not only what you have played but what you might yet play. It is why I approach headshots exactly as I approach a formal portrait: one face, honest light, and the patience to wait for the expression that is actually yours.

If you are an actor in Los Angeles and your headshots are not doing that work for you, come and see me at the studio.

Actor headshots, portraits and executive headshots at Rory Lewis Studio, 411 S Main Street, Unit 222, Downtown Los Angeles. Enquiries to RL@RORYLEWIS.STUDIO.