Even though Roddy McDowall has acted in more than one hundred feature films and made more than two hundred television appearances, he also has worked as a professional photographer for the last thirty years.

In 1968 he published “Double Exposure,” a gallery of photographs of internationally know entertainers with commentaries by their peers, and twenty-one years later McDowall has collected additional photographs that he has taken and featured them in his new book “Double Exposure, Take Two.”

“The first professional assignment I received to photograph a performer,” McDowall said, “was when I was hired by Alan Pakula to photograph Judy Holliday for the poster of ‘Lauret,’ a play she did in New York many years ago. That picture appeared in the first “Double Exposure.”

McDowall’s involvement with photography began when as a teenager he took many snapshots, but his professional interest developed a few years later. “I moved to New York and was acting in the theater. I had always been an actor since I was a tiny child and wanted to see if I could develop another aspect,” McDowall said.

“I worked very hard in relation to it (photography) and found out that I still wanted to continue acting but was equally interested in photography,” he said.

The gallery of people pictured, which included Fred Astaire, Marlene Dietrich, Viven Leigh, Jack Nicholson, Neil Simon, and Lily Tomlin, gave the viewer the impression that he was looking at a sampling of who’s who in entertainment.

This diverse cast was a choice that McDowall thought was important. “I wanted to include people from various areas like Agnes de Mille from dance and Virgil Thompson from music.”

A unique characteristic which set this book apart from other photography books was that performers commented on their peers. Mikhail Baryshnikov states about Fred Astaire, “It is no secret – we dancers hate him… his sense of invention as a performer inspires unforgettable jealously.”

Laurence Olivier states, “Genius is a terrible word in our profession. I’ve spent most of my life believing that acting is not an art but an interpretive craft. But Bette Midler must be as near to being a genius as makes no matter.”

“I knew that Olivier was a tremendous admirer of Midler’s, and he spoke so rapturously about her when I was with him,” McDowall said. “It seemed a wonderful opposite and a truly wealthy situation to include in the book.”

Another compliment was given by Claudette Colbert to Lynn Redgrave. “I asked Claudette to a make a statement because I had seen them on the stage together and there was a wonderful rapport between them. It was obvious that Claudette must have admired this actress who was younger and so proficient,” he said.

“In many instances I asked people to comment on other people. I asked Jason Robards to write about somebody from a younger generation and he chose Matthew Broderick. But on the other hand, Lillian Gish chose Esther Williams.

At age thirteen McDowall gained immense popularity by acting in the 1941 classic “How Green Was My Valley” with Maureen O’Hara and Walter Pidgeon and directed by John Ford. “I was very fortunate, and it’s one of the most particular films ever made,” said McDowall. “It was a very special experience.”

Later in his film career, McDowall worked with many of Hollywood’s top entertainers. He was in “The Keys of the Kingdom” with Gregory Peck in 1944; “The Longest Day” with Henry Fonda in 1962; “Cleopatra” with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 1963; and “Funny Lady” with Barbra Streisand in 1975.

In addition, McDowall was involved with a successful series of films about a planet of apes. “I had no idea that it would spawn such a tremendous group of films.” In addition the quality of the work intrigued him. “I thought it was so original and exciting that just the exercise of doing it was provocative,” he said. “It was wildly inventive and clever.”

About his special guest appearance on the television series “Batman” McDowall said, “I loved it. Everbody wanted to do it, and I was thrilled to do it. They were tremendously popular not only with audiences but with other actors. It was quite a coup to be involved.”