Ronald Neame | |
|---|---|
 Neame at the45th Academy Awards in 1973 | |
| Born | (1911-04-23)23 April 1911 London, England |
| Died | 16 June 2010(2010-06-16) (aged 99) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom United States |
| Education | Hurstpierpoint College |
| Alma mater | University College School |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1928–1991 |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | Christopher Neame |
| Parent(s) | Ivy Close Elwin Neame |
Ronald NeameCBE,BSC (23 April 1911 – 16 June 2010) was an English film producer, director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. Beginning his career as a cinematographer, for his work on the British war filmOne of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1943) he received anAcademy Award nomination for Best Special Effects. During a partnership with directorDavid Lean, he producedBrief Encounter (1945),Great Expectations (1946), andOliver Twist (1948), receiving twoAcademy Award nominations for writing.
Neame then moved into directing, and some notable films included,The Man Who Never Was (1956), which chronicledOperation Mincemeat, a British WWII deception operation,The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), which wonMaggie Smith her first Oscar, and the action-adventure disaster filmThe Poseidon Adventure (1972). He also directedI Could Go On Singing (1963),Judy Garland's last film, andScrooge (1970), starringAlbert Finney.
For his contributions to the film industry, in 1996 Neame was appointed a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire (CBE) and received theBAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the highest award theBritish Film Academy can give a filmmaker.
Born inHendon, London,[1] Neame was the son of photographer Elwin Neame and actressIvy Close.[2] He studied atUniversity College School andHurstpierpoint College. His father died in 1923,[3] and Neame took a job with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as an office boy. Later, through his mother's contacts in the British film industry, Neame started atElstree Studios as a messenger boy.[4]
He was fortunate enough to be hired as an assistant cameraman onBlackmail (1929), the first British talkie, directed by a youngAlfred Hitchcock. Neame's own career as a cinematographer began with the musical comedyHappy (1933), and he continued to develop his skills in various "quota quickies" films for several years.
His credits as cinematographer includeMajor Barbara (1941),In Which We Serve (1942), andOne of Our Aircraft Is Missing. At the15th Academy Awards,In Which We Serve won an Academy Honorary Award, and Neame was nominated for anBest Special Effects for his camerawork onOne of Our Aircraft Is Missing.[5]
Following the success ofIn Which We Serve, directorDavid Lean, associate producerAnthony Havelock-Allan, and cinematographer Neame formed a new production company together,Cineguild. Though the company only produced nine films between 1944 and 1950, it launched the directing careers of Lean and Neame and the producing career of Havelock-Allan.
The trio's first three films were adaptations of Coward's works:This Happy Breed,Blithe Spirit, andBrief Encounter. All three films were Directed by Lean, shot by Neame, produced by Havelock-Allan, and co-written from all three.Brief Encounter, which was adapted from Coward's one-act playStill Life, earned all three partners anAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination.
Following their success adapting Coward, the trio decided to adapt the works ofCharles Dickens. Their screenplay for their first adaptation,Great Expectations, earned the trio another Academy Award nomination. The film also marked an important shift in Neame's career, as it was his first film on which he was not cinematographer. Instead, he served as a producer alongside Havelock-Allan. The next year, he made his directorial debut withTake My Life, again produced by Havelock-Allan.
Cineguild's next film,Oliver Twist, was the beginning of the end for the production company. The film received criticism for antisemitism as a result ofAlec Guinness' portrayal ofFagin. It was Havelock-Allan's last film with the company. Neame produced one more film for Cineguild, Lean'sThe Passionate Friends, before leaving to write, produce, and directGolden Salamander. Lean's next film,Madeleine, was Cineguild's last, and the only Cineguild production without Neame or Havelock-Allan.
Following Cineguild's dissolution, Neame producedThe Magic Box (1951), a screen biography directed byJohn Boulting about the life of British camera inventorWilliam Friese-Greene, which was the film project for theFestival of Britain.
Neame made his directorial debut under the Cineguild banner, withTake My Life (1947), which was released by British producerJ. Arthur Rank'sGeneral Film Distributors in the United Kingdom in 1947 and by Rank'sEagle-Lion Films in the United States in 1949.[6] Neame began a transition to the American film industry at the suggestion of Rank, who asked him to study the Hollywood production system.[7]
He worked again withAlec Guinness (whom he had worked with onGreat Expectations andOliver Twist), this time as director, in three films:The Card (1952),The Horse's Mouth (1958), andTunes of Glory (1960). Neame describedTunes of Glory as "the film I am proudest of".[4] He received twoBAFTA Award nominations forTunes of Glory. Neame and Guinness worked again on the musicalScrooge (1970) with Guinness playing the ghost of Jacob Marley toAlbert Finney's Ebenezer Scrooge.
Neame also directedI Could Go On Singing (1963),Judy Garland's last film, co-starringDirk Bogarde; andThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), which wonMaggie Smith her first Oscar.
Neame was recruited to directThe Poseidon Adventure (1972) after the contracted director left the production. He later characterisedThe Poseidon Adventure as "my favourite film" because it earned him enough to retire comfortably.[4] He enjoyed a long friendship withWalter Matthau, whom he directed in two later films,Hopscotch (1980) andFirst Monday in October (1981).
Neame's final feature-length film,Foreign Body, a comedy starringVictor Banerjee, was filmed in England and released in 1986.
Neame married Beryl Heanly in 1933. They legally separated in 1971 and divorced in 1992. She died in 1999. The couple had one son,Christopher, a writer/producer who died one year after his father's death. Ronald's only grandson,Gareth Neame, is a successful television producer, who represents the fourth generation of Neames in the film industry. Ronnie Neame's second marriage took place in Santa Barbara on 12 September 1993. His wife, Donna Bernice Friedberg, is also in the business – a film researcher and television producer, who worked on his 1979 movieMeteor. He referred to their meeting as a"coup de foudre".[citation needed]
In 1996, Neame was appointed a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire (CBE) and awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the film industry. He had homes in Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara, California. In 2003, Neame published an autobiography,Straight from the Horse's Mouth. (ISBN 978-0810844902)
Neame died on 16 June 2010 after suffering complications from a broken leg.[8] The break required two surgical procedures from which Neame never recovered.[9]
In an interview in 2006, he jokingly stated, "When people ask me about the secret to my longevity, I say the honest answer is two large vodkas at lunchtime and three large scotches in the evening. All my doctors have said to me, 'Ronnie, if you would drink less, you'd live a lot longer.' But, they're all dead, and I'm still here at 95."[10]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | This Happy Breed | No | Yes | No | Also associate producer (uncredited) |
| 1945 | Blithe Spirit | No | Yes | No | |
| 1945 | Brief Encounter | No | Yes | uncredited | Nominated –Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Also production manager |
| 1946 | Great Expectations | No | Yes | Yes | Nominated –Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay |
| 1947 | Take My Life | Yes | No | No | |
| 1948 | Oliver Twist | No | No | Yes | |
| 1949 | The Passionate Friends | No | No | Yes | |
| 1950 | Golden Salamander | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1951 | The Magic Box | No | No | Yes | |
| 1952 | The Card | Yes | No | No | |
| 1953 | The Million Pound Note | Yes | No | No | |
| 1956 | The Man Who Never Was | Yes | No | No | |
| 1957 | The Seventh Sin | Yes | No | No | |
| Windom's Way | Yes | No | No | ||
| 1958 | The Horse's Mouth | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1960 | Tunes of Glory | Yes | No | No | |
| 1962 | Escape from Zahrain | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1963 | I Could Go On Singing | Yes | No | No | |
| 1964 | The Chalk Garden | Yes | No | No | |
| 1965 | Mister Moses | Yes | No | No | |
| 1966 | A Man Could Get Killed | Yes | No | No | replaced directorCliff Owen |
| Gambit | Yes | No | No | ||
| 1968 | Prudence and the Pill | Uncredited | No | No | |
| 1969 | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Yes | No | No | |
| 1970 | Hello-Goodbye | uncredited | No | No | Replaced directorJean Negulesco |
| Scrooge | Yes | No | No | ||
| 1972 | The Poseidon Adventure | Yes | No | No | |
| 1974 | The Odessa File | Yes | No | No | |
| 1979 | Meteor | Yes | No | No | also British Representative |
| 1980 | Hopscotch | Yes | No | No | |
| 1981 | First Monday in October | Yes | No | No | also Speaker Over PA System (uncredited) |
| 1986 | Foreign Body | Yes | No | No | |
| 1990 | The Magic Balloon | Yes | Yes | No | Short film |
Camera operator
Assistant camera
Cinematographer
