Robert Riger; Sports Artist, Photographer, TV Director

Robert Riger, a sports artist and photographer who moved into film and TV direction and cinematography, directing more than 200 segments for ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” died last week in Huntington Beach.

His son, Robert Jr., said his father--winner of nine Emmy awards while at ABC--learned several months ago that he had adenocarcinoma, a glandular cancer. He was 70 and died May 19.

His son said that when he learned he was dying, his father hurried to complete his final book, “The Sports Photography of Robert Riger,” to be published in October by Random House.

Riger was an original contributor to Sports Illustrated when it began publication in 1954, and through 1961 the magazine published more than 1,200 of his drawings and more than 200 of his sketches for ads and promotions.

Riger completed his first sports drawing in 1945, a complex lithograph that took five hours to produce.

He started photography five years later, originally as research for the drawings, but becoming a life’s work in its own right. From 1950 to 1994 he copyrighted more than 90,000 negatives, more than 40,000 of them involving football, his favorite sport.

Riger was a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, served three years in the merchant marine during World War II and afterward earned a bachelor’s degree from Pratt Art Institute in Brooklyn.

He covered 14 sessions of the summer and winter Olympic games, was second unit director for John Huston on the soccer action scenes in the film “Victory,” and wrote several books on football and baseball, including works for children.

His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York City and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Besides his son Robert, he is survived by five other children from his two marriages.