Roy Ward Baker

Regista, Produttore, Sceneggiatore

19 dicembre 1916 — 5 ottobre 2010 (93 anni)
Roy Ward Baker was an English film director born in London on 19 December 1916. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for best foreign English language film in 1959. His later career was varied, and included many horror films and television shows.

Baker's early career, from 1934 to 1939, was spent working for Gainsborough Pictures, a British film production company based in Islington, North London, famous for its prestige productions. His first jobs were menial - making tea for crew members, for example - but by 1938 he had risen through the ranks to work as assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

He served in the army during World War II, until transferring to the Army Kinematograph Unit in 1943 in order to make better use of skills developed in his pre-war career producing documentaries and teaching materials for troops. One of his superiors at the time was novelist Eric Ambler. It was he who gave Baker his first big break directing The October Man, from an Ambler screenplay, in 1947. Ambler also adapted Walter Lord's A Night to Remember for Baker's 1958 screen version.

During the early 1950s, Baker worked for three years in Hollywood where he directed Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and Robert Ryan in 3D film noir Inferno (1953). He returned to the UK for the latter part of the decade, but defected to television in the early 1960s.

He directed episodes of The Avengers, The Saint and The Champions - all adventure series created with an eye on the American market. The low-budget ethic of television production made him well-suited to his next career move into cheaply produced but lavish-looking British horror films. He directed, amongst others, Quatermass and the Pit (1967) The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Scars of Dracula (1970) for Hammer, and Asylum (1972) for Amicus.

In the latter part of the 1970s he returned to television, and throughout the 1980s continued to work in Television.  He retired in 1992.

Film e Serie su Plex

  • La signora scompare
    La signora scompare1938
  • Titanic, latitudine 41 nord
    Titanic, latitudine 41 nord1958
  • Agente speciale
    Agente speciale5 stagioni
  • La morte dietro il cancello
    La morte dietro il cancello1972
  • Vampiri amanti
    Vampiri amanti1970
  • Il marchio di Dracula
    Il marchio di Dracula1970
  • Il Santo
    Il Santo6 stagioni
  • Le nevi del Chilimangiaro
    Le nevi del Chilimangiaro1952
  • Il club dei mostri
    Il club dei mostri1981
  • La maledizione
    La maledizione1973
  • L'organizzazione ringrazia firmato il Santo
    L'organizzazione ringrazia firmato il Santo1968
  • Flame in the Streets
    Flame in the Streets1961

Famoso per

  • La signora scompare
    La signora scompare1938
  • Titanic, latitudine 41 nord
    Titanic, latitudine 41 nord1958
  • La morte dietro il cancello
    La morte dietro il cancello1972
  • L'astronave degli esseri perduti
    L'astronave degli esseri perduti1967
  • La tua bocca brucia
    La tua bocca brucia1952
  • Vampiri amanti
    Vampiri amanti1970
  • Il marchio di Dracula
    Il marchio di Dracula1970
  • The Vault of Horror
    The Vault of Horror1973
  • La leggenda dei 7 vampiri d'oro
    La leggenda dei 7 vampiri d'oro1974
  • Il club dei mostri
    Il club dei mostri1981
  • Agente speciale
    Agente speciale6 stagioni
  • Barbara il mostro di Londra
    Barbara il mostro di Londra1971
  • La maledizione
    La maledizione1973
  • Il Santo
    Il Santo6 stagioni
  • Attenti a quei due
    Attenti a quei due1 stagione
  • Minder
    Minder10 stagioni
  • Night Train to Munich
    Night Train to Munich1940
  • L'anniversario
    L'anniversario1968
  • Sfida agli inglesi
    Sfida agli inglesi1957
  • Luna zero due
    Luna zero due1969

Filmografia

1965
Two Left Feet · as Screenplay

1940
Night Train to Munich · as Second Unit Director
1938
The Lady Vanishes · as Assistant DirectorSu Plex
1936
Nine Days a Queen · as Production Assistant
1935
Heat Wave · as Production Assistant