Robert R. Dunn; Pioneering Television Cameraman

Robert R. Dunn, 73, a pioneering television cameraman who shot everything from sitcoms to sports to Siberia. A Canadian native who grew up in Los Angeles, Dunn attended USC and served in the Army during World War II. He worked for CBS for 43 years, starting as a radio network page in 1949. Dunn was a cameraman in the halcyon early days of live television, shooting the first “Burns and Allen” show and more than 100 productions of “Playhouse 90.” He operated the first hand-held camera for CBS Sports and, after taking it to the 1968 national political conventions, moved permanently to CBS News. He accompanied Presidents Richard Nixon to the Soviet Union and Middle East, Gerald Ford to China and Ronald Reagan on both his national campaigns. Dunn made 50 trips to Alaska, recording construction of the oil pipeline, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the state’s unusual wildlife. His lens followed Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite and Charles Kuralt and led him as far as the South Pole. On Monday in Thousand Oaks after a long illness.