John Bartley, who worked on shows including X-Files and Lost, has died at the age of 78. The Emmy Award winning cinematographer’s death was announced by his friend, Australian filmmaker Polly Pierce, on social media. She wrote: “It’s with such a heavy heart to write that my long-time mentor and dear friend, the cinematographer John S Bartley ASC CSC, has passed on.

“If it wasn’t for John and his landmark work on @thexfilestv I wouldn’t be in film or Vancouver. And I’ll forever be grateful to him for the opportunity of shadowing him on Lost in Hawai’i sealing my fate to be a perpetual filmo!” she wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of the pair together.

Polly continued: “And I’ll remember going one evening to the local Kahala 8 cinemas with him to catch the recently released ‘Watchmen’ film, but we got there late so had the worst, neck craning seats up front. And he leaned over to tell me ‘These are horrible seats Polly’ and it dawned on me I did the inconceivable: I took an Emmy award winning DP to a film and would make him watch it from the worst seats in the house!

“So much aloha and Mahalo to the one and only, JSB.”

Tributes flooded in to John in the comments section, with one devastated fan writing: “Very sorry for your loss. Praying for comfort and peace for his whole family.”

Another fan echoed: “So sorry for your loss. I worked with him for seasons on Lost and we ALL loved him.”

A third social media user echoed: “Loved his work on X-Files! RIP legend.” While somebody else posted of the Hollywood icon: “We’ve lost another good one, but what a generous gesture to connect with a young lass from the other side of the world.”