UT Tower shooting filmmaker dies at 82

AUSTIN (KXAN) - An Austin filmmaker and media pioneer whose career credits include covering the presidential campaign for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Banes Johnson has died.

Gordon Wilkison passed away at his Austin home Wednesday evening at the age of 82.

Among his most notable work, film footage of the deadly UT Tower shooting which he risked his life to capture.

The Johnson family called on Wilkison to help process and edit film the day after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Wilkison was also the general manager of photo processing for the LBJ Corp. Known by his friends as “Wilk,” he also processed game film for UT football for nearly 30 years.

The footage he shot over the years included priceless film of 1950s and 1960s Austin street scenes, complete with traffic made up of cars and trucks that are considered rare classics today. It revealed a city skyline devoid of the towering condo, office and hotel buildings that now rise above the Capitol building and the UT Tower, sometimes blocking views of those historic buildings.

His generosity extended to great depths across Austin. When the Zach Theater faced closure he created a guild to sustain ongoing donations for the movie house.

Wilkison was also the Chairman of the Board at Zachary Scott and was known for feeding starving actors at the old Night Hawk restaurant. He was also a member of the Paramount Theater Board until the mid 2000’s.

His family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Paramount  Theater or All Saint’s Episcopal Church, Austin, Rectory’s Discretionary Fund.