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People of Note - Obituaries
GenealogyBuff.com - John Schlesinger, Filmmaker
Posted By: GenealogyBuff.com
Date: Friday, 9 September 2016, at 12:48 a.m.
System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!John Schlesinger, Filmmaker
, 1926 - July 25, 2003
Oscar winning filmmaker John Schlesinger died Friday July 25, 2003 at the age of 77 years. He had a debilitating stroke in December 2000 and his condition had been deteriorating over the past few weeks. He was born in London in 1926 and grew up in Hampstead, the eldest of five children of a London pediatrician. He studied English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford, during which time he acted with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, worked with the Experimental Theatre Club, toured America with the Oxford Players and directed two films. He began acting professionally with several repertory companies, toured Australia and New Zealand in a season of classical plays, and appeared in numerous television productions and films. He then graduated to making his own short films for such BBC programs as TONIGHT (Current Affairs) and MONITOR (Arts). One of these, THE INNOCENT EYE, won a diploma at the Edinburgh Festival. He also went to Rhodes to direct some publicity films on the making of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, worked as second unit director for the ITV series THE FOUR JUST MEN, and directed part of the television series about Winston Churchill, THE VALIANY YEARS. His first film for the cinema was TERMINUS, a documentary for British Transport Films. It is a distillation of twenty-four hours in the life of Waterloo Station, and it won numerous awards, including the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival and a British Academy Award. The success of TERMINUS led to his first feature film, A KIND OF LOVING. The film was an enormous critical and popular success and received the Golden bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. His next film, BILLY LIAR, gave Julie Christie her first leading role in a feature. He followed BILLY LIAR with the even more successful DARLING, which won him the New York Film Critics Award as Best Director of 1965. In addition, he was nominated for an Academy Award From 1968 to 1969 he directed his first American film, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, which proved to be a highly successful venture for all concerned. It received several awards, including Best Director. He returned to London to direct SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, starring Glenda Jackson, peter Finch and Murray Head. This film also won numerous awards, including Italy's Donatello Prize, as well as four Oscar nominations. In 1972 he was one of eight directors invited to contribute to the official Munich Olympics film, VISIONS OF EIGHT, in which he chose to feature the marathon race. He then went back to America to film THE DAY OF THE LOCUST, based on the novel by Nathaniel West, and followed this with MARATHON MAN in 1976, his first thriller, starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. He directed the World War drama, YANKS, in England during the summer of 1978 and for his efforts he won his second Donatello Prize, and a New Standard Award in Britain. He completed his first comedy, HONKY TONK FREEWAY, a warm-hearted look at small town America, in 1980. In 1984 he directed THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN, starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton and in 1986 began shooting THE BELIEVERS with Martin Sheen, Helen Shaver, Robert Loggia and Jimmy Smits. His 1990 film PACIFIC HEIGHTS, put a scared into landlords around the world. In the summer of 1991 he began shooting Alan Bennett's script, A QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION, for the BBC which was screened in October that year and won BAFTA's Best Single Drama award. His last film was the 2000 comedy THE NEXT BEST THING starring Madonna and Rupert Everett. During intervals between films, John Schlesinger has directed several stage plays for Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, including TIMON OF ATHENS, HEARTBREAK HOUSE, JULIUS CAESAR and Sam Shepard's TRUE WEST. Born in London in 1926, Schlesinger started out as a character actor for stage, film and television and also made documentaries such as 1961's Terminus, about a day in the life of a train station. The director lived in Palm Springs with photographer Michael Childers, his companion of 30 years.
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