John Schlesinger

Instruktør, Skuespiller, Producer, Forfatter

16. februar 1926 — 25. juli 2003 (77 år)
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE, was an English film and stage director, and actor. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for Midnight Cowboy, and was nominated for two other films (Darling and Sunday Bloody Sunday).

Schlesinger was born in London, into a middle class Jewish family. His acting career began in the 1950s and consisted of supporting roles in British films and television productions. He began his directorial career in 1956 with the short documentary Sunday in the Park about London's Hyde Park. In 1958, Schlesinger created a documentary on Benjamin Britten and the Aldeburgh Festival for the BBC's Monitor TV programme, including rehearsals of the children's opera Noye's Fludde featuring a young Michael Crawford.

By the 1960s, he had virtually given up acting to concentrate on a directing career, and another of his earlier directorial efforts, the British Transport Films' documentary Terminus (1961), gained a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. His first two fiction films, A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963) were set in the North of England. A Kind of Loving won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlinale in 1962. His third feature film, Darling (1965), tartly described the modern, urban way of life in London and was one of the first films about 'swinging London'. Schlesinger's next film was the period drama Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's popular novel accentuated by beautiful English country locations. Both films (and Billy Liar) featured Julie 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 won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. During the 1970s, he made an array of films that were mainly about loners, losers and people outside the clean world, such as Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), The Day of the Locust (1975), Marathon Man (1976) and Yanks (1979). Later, came the major box office and critical failure of Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), followed by films that attracted mixed responses from the public

From 1973, he was an associate director of the Royal National Theatre, where he produced George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House (1975). He also directed several operas, beginning with Les contes d'Hoffmann (1980) and Der Rosenkavalier (1984), both at Covent Garden. Schlesinger was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to film in 1970. In 2003, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

Film og serier på Plex

  • Den satans søndag
    Den satans søndag1971
  • En slags kærlighed
    En slags kærlighed1962
  • The Tale of Sweeney Todd
    The Tale of Sweeney Todd1998

Kendt for

  • Midnight Cowboy
    Midnight Cowboy1969
  • Marathonmanden
    Marathonmanden1976
  • En fremmed flytter ind
    En fremmed flytter ind1990
  • Eye For An Eye
    Eye For An Eye1996
  • Falken og Snemanden
    Falken og Snemanden1985
  • Darling
    Darling1965
  • Den satans søndag
    Den satans søndag1971
  • Det næstbedste
    Det næstbedste2000
  • Den 7. magt
    Den 7. magt1987
  • Billy løgneren
    Billy løgneren1963
  • Cold Comfort Farm
    Cold Comfort Farm1995
  • Katastrofenatten
    Katastrofenatten1975
  • Fjernt fra verdens vrimmel
    Fjernt fra verdens vrimmel1967
  • Yankees - vi ses igen!
    Yankees - vi ses igen!1979
  • En slags kærlighed
    En slags kærlighed1962
  • Madame Sousatzka
    Madame Sousatzka1988
  • The Innocent
    The Innocent1993
  • Byen der blev kørt over
    Byen der blev kørt over1981
  • An Englishman Abroad
    An Englishman Abroad1983
  • The Tale of Sweeney Todd
    The Tale of Sweeney Todd1998

Filmografi