John Schlesinger | |
|---|---|
 Schlesinger in 1974 | |
| Born | John Richard Schlesinger (1926-02-16)16 February 1926 London, England |
| Died | 25 July 2003(2003-07-25) (aged 77) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Occupations |
|
| Partner | Michael Childers |
John Richard Schlesinger[1] (/ˈʃlɛsɪndʒər/SHLESS-in-jər; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film, television and stage director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of theBritish New Wave, before embarking on a successful career inHollywood, often directing films dealing frankly in provocative subject matter, combined with his status as one of the rare openly gay directors working in mainstream films.[2][3]
Schlesinger started his career making British dramasA Kind of Loving (1962),Billy Liar (1963), andFar from the Madding Crowd (1967). He won theAcademy Award for Best Director forMidnight Cowboy (1969) and was Oscar-nominated forDarling (1965) andSunday Bloody Sunday (1971). He gained acclaim for hisHollywood filmsThe Day of the Locust (1975) andMarathon Man (1976). His later films includeMadame Sousatzka (1988) andCold Comfort Farm (1995). He also served as an associate director of theRoyal National Theatre.
Over his career he received numerous accolades including anAcademy Award, and fourBAFTA Awards as well as nominations for threeGolden Globe Awards. His honours include theCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and aBAFTA Fellow. Four of Schlesinger's films are on theBritish Film Institute'sTop 100 British films.[4]
Schlesinger was born and raised inHampstead, London,[5] in a Jewish family,[6] the eldest of five children[7] of distinguishedEmmanuel College, Cambridge–educated paediatrician and physician Bernard Edward SchlesingerOBE FRCP (1896–1984), who had also served in theRoyal Army Medical Corps as a brigadier,[8] and his wife Winifred Henrietta, daughter of Hermann Regensburg, a stockbroker fromFrankfurt.[9] She had left school at 14 to study at theTrinity College of Music, and later studied languages at theUniversity of Oxford for three years.[10][11] Bernard Schlesinger's father Richard, a stockbroker, had come to England in the 1880s from Frankfurt.[12]
AfterSt Edmund's School, Hindhead andUppingham School (where his father had also been),[13] Schlesinger enlisted in theBritish Army duringWorld War II. While serving with theRoyal Engineers, he made films on the war's front line. He also entertained his fellow troops by performing magic tricks.[14] After his tour of duty, he continued making short films and acted in stage productions while studying atBalliol College,Oxford, where he was involved in theOxford University Dramatic Society.[15]
Schlesinger's acting career began in the 1950s and consisted of supporting roles in British films such asThe Divided Heart andOh... Rosalinda!!, and British television productions such asBBC Sunday Night Theatre,The Adventures of Robin Hood andThe Vise. He began his directorial career in 1956 with the short documentarySunday in the Park about London'sHyde Park. In 1958, Schlesinger created a documentary onBenjamin Britten and theAldeburgh Festival for the BBC'sMonitor TV programme, including rehearsals of the children's operaNoye's Fludde featuring a youngMichael Crawford.[16][17] In 1959, Schlesinger was credited as exterior or second unit director on 23 episodes of the TV seriesThe Four Just Men and four 30-minute episodes of the seriesDanger Man.[18] He also appeared inCol March of Scotland Yard as "Dutch cook" in "Death and the Other Monkey" 1956.
By the 1960s, he had virtually given up acting to concentrate on a directing career, and another of his earlier directorial efforts, theBritish Transport Films' documentaryTerminus (1961), gained aVenice Film Festival Gold Lion and aBritish Academy Award. His first two fiction films,A Kind of Loving (1962) andBilly Liar (1963) were set in theNorth of England. Both were produced by Joseph Janni and financed byNat Cohen.[19]A Kind of Loving won theGolden Bear award at the12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.[20] His third feature film,Darling (1965), tartly described the modern way of life in London and was one of the first films about 'swinging London'. Schlesinger's next film was the period dramaFar from the Madding Crowd (1967), an adaptation ofThomas Hardy's popular novel accentuated by beautiful English country locations. Both films (andBilly Liar) featuredJulie Christie as the female lead.
Schlesinger's next film,Midnight Cowboy (1969), was internationally acclaimed. A story of two hustlers living on the fringe in the bad side of New York City, it was Schlesinger's first film shot in the US, and it wonOscars forBest Director andBest Picture. The film was one of the earliest mainstream American films to deal explicitly with homosexual relationships, and is considered a groundbreaking work of queer cinema.[21][22][23] During the 1970s, he made an array of films that were mainly about loners, losers and people outside the mainstream world, such asSunday Bloody Sunday (1971),The Day of the Locust (1975),Marathon Man (1976) andYanks (1979). Later, came the major box office and critical failure ofHonky Tonk Freeway (1981), followed by films that attracted mixed responses from the public, and low returns, althoughThe Falcon and the Snowman (1985) made money andPacific Heights (1990) was a box-office hit. In Britain, he did better with films likeMadame Sousatzka (1988) and the television filmCold Comfort Farm (1995). Other later works include plays for televisionAn Englishman Abroad (1983) andA Question of Attribution (1991), both with scripts by Alan Bennett,The Innocent (1993) andThe Next Best Thing (2000).
Schlesinger directed on stageTimon of Athens (1965) for theRoyal Shakespeare Company and the musicalI and Albert (1972) at London'sPiccadilly Theatre. From 1973, he was an associate director of theRoyal National Theatre, where he producedGeorge Bernard Shaw'sHeartbreak House (1975). He directed several operas, includingLes contes d'Hoffmann (1980) andDer Rosenkavalier (1984), both atCovent Garden.[24]
Schlesinger directed aparty political broadcast for theConservative Party in thegeneral election of 1992, which featured Prime MinisterJohn Major returning toBrixton insouth London, thus highlighting Major's humble background, something atypical for a Conservative politician at that time. Schlesinger said he had voted for all three main political parties in the UK at one time or another.
In 1991, Schlesinger made a brief return to acting, portraying the gay character 'Derek' in the TV adaptation ofThe Lost Language of Cranes for the BBC. Schlesinger had himself come out during the making ofMidnight Cowboy.[25]
Schlesinger was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the1970 Birthday Honours for services to film.[26][27] Maintaining a flat in London and house atPalm Springs, California[28] Schlesinger had a Golden Palm Star on the Palm SpringsWalk of Stars dedicated to him in January 2003, which was his final public appearance.[29][30]
Schlesinger underwent a quadrupleheart bypass in 1998, before suffering astroke on New Year's Day 2001, which substantially diminished his faculties.[31] He died at Desert Regional Medical Center inPalm Springs on the morning of 25 July 2003, at the age of 77.[32][2]
Schlesinger was survived by his partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. A memorial service was held on 30 September 2003.[27] He was cremated, with most of his ashes interred next to his parents, and the remainder left to be interred with Childers.[32]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | The Starfish | Yes[a] | Yes | Uncredited |
| 1962 | A Kind of Loving | Yes | No | No |
| 1963 | Billy Liar | Yes | No | No |
| 1965 | Darling | Yes | Story | No |
| 1967 | Far From the Madding Crowd | Yes | No | No |
| 1969 | Midnight Cowboy | Yes | No | No |
| 1971 | Sunday Bloody Sunday | Yes | Uncredited | No |
| 1975 | The Day of the Locust | Yes | No | No |
| 1976 | Marathon Man | Yes | No | No |
| 1979 | Yanks | Yes | No | No |
| 1981 | Honky Tonk Freeway | Yes | No | No |
| 1985 | The Falcon and the Snowman | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1987 | The Believers | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1988 | Madame Sousatzka | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1990 | Pacific Heights | Yes | No | No |
| 1993 | The Innocent | Yes | No | No |
| 1996 | Eye for an Eye | Yes | No | No |
| 2000 | The Next Best Thing | Yes | No | No |
Documentary film
Documentary short
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Sunday in the Park | Yes | No | Yes | Also cinematographer |
| 1961 | Terminus | Yes | Yes | No | Also appeared as a passenger (Uncredited) |
| 1973 | The Longest | Yes | No | No | Segment ofVisions of Eight |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1960–1963 | The Valiant Years | |
| 1958–1961 | Monitor | 4 episodes |
| 1967 | The Wednesday Play | Episode "Days in the Trees" (Original Royal Shakespeare Company stage production) |
| 1991 | Screen One | Episode "A Question of Attribution" |
TV movies
He was twice nominated for theVenice Film Festival'sGolden Lion, and was recipient of theDirectors Guild of Great Britain's Lifetime Achievement Award. In the1970 Birthday Honours, he was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to film. In 1981, theHamburg-basedAlfred Toepfer Foundation awarded Schlesinger its annualShakespeare Prize in recognition of his life's work. In1996 he was made aBAFTA Fellow.
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Darling | Best Director | Nominated |
| 1969 | Midnight Cowboy | Won | |
| 1971 | Sunday Bloody Sunday | Nominated |
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Terminus | Best Short Film | Won |
| 1965 | Darling | Best British Film | Nominated |
| 1969 | Midnight Cowboy | Best Direction | Won |
| 1971 | Sunday Bloody Sunday | Won | |
| 1979 | Yanks | Nominated | |
| 1983 | An Englishman Abroad | Best Single Drama | Won |
| 1991 | A Question of Attribution | Won | |
| 1996 | BAFTA Fellowship | Won | |
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Darling | Best Director | Nominated |
| 1969 | Midnight Cowboy | Won | |
| 1976 | Marathon Man | Nominated |
| Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1962 | A Kind of Loving | 4 | |||||
| 1963 | Billy Liar | 6 | |||||
| 1965 | Darling | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 1967 | Far from the Madding Crowd | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 1969 | Midnight Cowboy | 7 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 1971 | Sunday Bloody Sunday | 4 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1975 | The Day of the Locust | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1976 | Marathon Man | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||
| 1979 | Yanks | 7 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 1988 | Madame Sousatzka | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Total | 20 | 6 | 46 | 18 | 26 | 5 | |
Directed Academy Award performances
Under Schlesinger's direction, these actors have received theAcademy Award nominations and wins for their performances in their respective roles.
| Year | Performer | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award for Best Actor | |||
| 1970 | Dustin Hoffman | Midnight Cowboy | Nominated |
| Jon Voight | Nominated | ||
| 1972 | Peter Finch | Sunday Bloody Sunday | Nominated |
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |||
| 1976 | Burgess Meredith | The Day of the Locust | Nominated |
| 1977 | Laurence Olivier | Marathon Man | Nominated |
| Academy Award for Best Actress | |||
| 1966 | Julie Christie | Darling | Won |
| 1972 | Glenda Jackson | Sunday Bloody Sunday | Nominated |
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |||
| 1970 | Sylvia Miles | Midnight Cowboy | Nominated |
