Howard Block

Howard Block was a camera operator and cinematographer who worked as second unit director of photography on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Block was born in New York City, New York, USA. He received the President's Award in 1994 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 from the Society of Camera Operators.

Block worked as assistant camera operator on the drama On the Waterfront (1954) and on the television series The Honeymooners (1955-1956). Throughout the next forty years, Block was a camera operator on the television series The Defenders and N.Y.P.D. (starring Robert Hooks), the crime drama The Godfather (1972), the crime drama Crazy Joe (1974, with James A. Contner), the television series Kojak, The Rockford Files, Quincy M.E., The Dukes of Hazzard, and Magnum, P.I., the comedy The Prisoner of Zenda (1979), the comedy The Nude Bomb (1980), the sport drama Rocky III (1982), and the television series T.J. Hooker (1982, starring William Shatner), Blue Thunder (1984), Nighthawks, Dear John (1988, with Marvin V. Rush), and Babylon 5.

Beside working as second unit director of photography on the television series Magnum, P.I., Capital News, and Parenthood, Block was the director of photography on episodes of Mack & Myer for Hire (1963), The Twentieth Century (1964), Crazy Like a Fox, Mike Hammer (1986), Murder, She Wrote (1986-1987), The Law and Harry McGraw, Cheers (1990), and She-Wolf of London (1990).

Block passed away of natural causes on 5 February 2005 in Tarzana, California, USA.