John Sturges | |
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| Born | John Eliot Sturges (1910-01-03)January 3, 1910 Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 18, 1992(1992-08-18) (aged 82) |
| Occupation | Film director |
John Eliot Sturges (/ˈstɜːrdʒɪs/; January 3, 1910 – August 18, 1992) was an Americanfilm director. His films includeBad Day at Black Rock (1955),Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957),The Magnificent Seven (1960),The Great Escape (1963), andIce Station Zebra (1968). In 2013 and 2018, respectively,The Magnificent Seven and Bad Day at Black Rock were selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[1]
Sturges started his career inHollywood as an editor in 1932. DuringWorld War II, Sturges directed documentaries and training films as a captain in theUnited States Army Air ForcesFirst Motion Picture Unit.[2] Sturges's mainstream directorial career began withThe Man Who Dared (1946), the first of manyB movies. In the suspense filmBad Day at Black Rock (1955), he made imaginative use of the widescreenCinemaScope format by placingSpencer Tracy alone against a vast desert panorama, receiving aBest Director Oscar nomination for the film. Over the course of his career, Sturges developed a reputation for elevated character-based drama within the confines of genre filmmaking. He was awarded theGolden Boot Award in 1992 for his lifetime contribution to Westerns.
He once metAkira Kurosawa, who told him that he lovedThe Magnificent Seven (which was a remake of Kurosawa'sSeven Samurai). Sturges considered this the proudest moment of his professional career.[3]The Magnificent Seven was an inductee in the 2013National Film Registry list.[4] Sturges commented that its popularity is due in part as a springboard for several young actors, transporting the locale from Japan to Mexico, putting a twist into the career ofYul Brynner, and having part of its score used as theMarlboro cigarette commercial theme.[5] He died in 1992.
