Rick Fee was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1950. He grew up in
the neighboring town of Hingham. He graduated from Colgate University
in 1972 and attended New York University's Graduate Institute of Film
and Television, from which he graduated with an MFA in 1974.
Fee made a short film at NYU called "Beligerance" which was nominated
for one of the "Best Student Film" awards of 1975 by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (it was beaten out by Robert
Zemeckis' student film, "Field of Honor", from USC.). "Beligerance" was also nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers' 1975 "Best Photographed Student Film" awards.
Based in Los Angeles starting in 1975, he was accepted as a member of the
International Cinematographers Guild in July of 1979.