Sam Drummy was an Emmy Award-winning camera operator who worked on more than 60 television series, television movies, specials and awards shows. Drummy was nominated for 10 Primetime Emmys and won seven. He also won a Daytime Emmy.
Drummy earned his first credit as a camera operator in 1972, on the telefilm Apollo 17: Splashdown. His work also earned him his first Emmy nomination, in the category of outstanding achievement in technical direction and electronic camerawork.
He would go on to contribute to specials for Olivia Newton-John, the Doobie Brothers, Ricky Nelson & Fats Domino, Joan Rivers, Whitney Houston, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, the Rolling Stones, Garth Brooks, Bette Midler and American Bandstand's 30th anniversary. He also worked on multiple Young Comedians Specials, the MTV Video Music Awards, AFI Life Achievement Awards and Academy Awards.
Additionally, Drummy contributed to the 1983 stand-up special Eddie Murphy: Delirious. It is considered one of the most famous and influential comedy performances in history.
Drummy also worked on the series Police Story, Solid Gold, The Paula Poundstone Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, The Weird Al Show, Survivor, Big Brother and Whose Line Is It Anyway?
From 1990 to 1994, he served as the camera operator for the sketch series In Living Color, which starred the Wayans siblings as well as Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier and Jennifer Lopez in one of her first jobs as a member of the dance troupe "The Fly Girls."
Drummy’s other Emmy wins came for his work on the series On Stage America and the specials The Magic of David Copperfield XII: The Niagara Falls Challenge, The Magic of David Copperfield XIII: Mystery on the Orient Express, Paul Simon's Concert in the Park, Janet: The Velvet Rope, Timeless: Live in Concert and the TV movie Fail Safe, about the Cold War.
In 1988, he appeared in the Bill Murray holiday classic Scrooged, as a cameraman on a crane.
Drummy was also a charter member of the Society of Camera Operators.
He died July 2, 2016, in Opihikao, Hawaii. He was 77.
