American cinematographer (1926–2018) who was director of photography on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first Star Trek feature film, for the director Robert Wise.
Richard H. Kline was an American cinematographer from a family of Hollywood cameramen, twice nominated for the Academy Award, for Camelot and King Kong.
He photographed Star Trek: The Motion Picture, released in 1979, for Robert Wise, with whom he had earlier made The Andromeda Strain. The film required him to light the large new sets of the refitted Enterprise, including the bridge, the engine room and the recreation deck, and to shoot a great many scenes that would later be combined with visual effects.
Kline used split-dioptre lenses in a number of shots to hold near and distant actors in focus together, a device that is one of the visual signatures of the film.