Jay Thompson; Photographer of Stage Plays, Stars

Jay Thompson, 68, a photographer who specialized in publicity photos of stage plays. For the past 23 years, Thompson had recorded the innovative plays presented by the Mark Taper Forum, including the world premieres of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angels in America” and “The Kentucky Cycle,” the Tony-winning “Children of a Lesser God” and the plays “Zoot Suit,” “In the Belly of the Beast,” “Jelly’s Last Jam” and “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.” Thompson also photographed such plays at the neighboring Ahmanson Theater as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Heidi Chronicles.” Earlier in his career in Los Angeles theater, he photographed such classics as “Hair,” “Tommy” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Thompson’s photos captured key scenes to illustrate reviews and articles in The Times and many other publications. He was also known for his portraits of celebrities such as Bette Davis, Lucille Ball and Eleanor Roosevelt. A native of East Orange, N.J., Thompson served in the Army in the 1950s as a radio announcer in Panama. He became a photographer after working as a publicist at Universal Studios. In recent years, Thompson was also a spiritual teacher for the pan-religion study group called the Infinite Way, and in the 1970s had worked on the Hollywood Revitalization Committee. On Tuesday in Glendale of respiratory failure.