John Schlesinger

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John Schlesinger

CBE
Schlesinger in 1974
Born
John Richard Schlesinger

(1926-02-16)16 February 1926
London, England
Died25 July 2003(2003-07-25) (aged 77)
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Occupations
  • Director
  • actor
PartnerMichael Childers

John Richard Schlesinger

CBE (/ˈʃlɛsɪnər/ SHLESS-in-jər; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of the British New Wave, before embarking on a successful career in Hollywood, often directing films dealing frankly in provocative subject matter, combined with his status as one of the only openly-gay directors working in mainstream films.[2][3]

Schlesinger started his career making British dramas A Kind of Loving (1962), Billy Liar (1963), and Far from the Madding Crowd (1967). He won the Academy Award for Best Director for Midnight Cowboy (1969) and was Oscar-nominated for Darling (1965) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). He gained acclaim for his Hollywood films The Day of the Locust (1975), and Marathon Man (1976). His later films include Madame Sousatzka (1988), and Cold Comfort Farm (1995). He also served as an associate director of the Royal National Theatre.

Over his career he received numerous accolades including an

BAFTA Fellow. Four of Schlesinger's films are on the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films.[4]

Early life

Schlesinger was born and raised in

Trinity College of Music, and later studied languages at the University of Oxford for three years.[10][11] Bernard Schlesinger's father Richard, a stockbroker, had come to England in the 1880s from Frankfurt.[12]

After

Career

Schlesinger's acting career began in the 1950s and consisted of supporting roles in British films such as

Monitor TV programme, including rehearsals of the children's opera Noye's Fludde featuring a young Michael Crawford.[16][17] In 1959, Schlesinger was credited as exterior or second unit director on 23 episodes of the TV series The Four Just Men and four 30-minute episodes of the series Danger Man.[18]
He also appeared in Col 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, the

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,

Best Director and Best Picture. The film was one of the earliest mainstream American films to deal explicitly in a homosexual relationship, and is considered a groundbreaking work of queer cinema.[20][21][22] During the 1970s, he made an array of films that were mainly about loners, losers and people outside the mainstream 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, and low returns, although The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) made money and Pacific Heights (1990) was a box-office hit. In Britain, he did better with films like Madame Sousatzka (1988) and Cold Comfort Farm (1995). Other later works include plays for television An Englishman Abroad (1983) and A Question of Attribution (1991), both with scripts by Alan Bennett, The Innocent (1993) and The Next Best Thing
(2000).

Schlesinger directed on stage Timon of Athens (1965) for the

Schlesinger directed a party political broadcast for the Conservative Party in the general election of 1992, which featured Prime Minister John Major returning to Brixton in south 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.

Later life and death

In 1991, Schlesinger made a brief return to acting, portraying the gay character 'Derek' in the TV adaptation of The Lost Language of Cranes for the BBC. Schlesinger had himself come out during the making of Midnight Cowboy.[24]

Schlesinger was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1970 Birthday Honours for services to film.[25][26] Maintaining a flat in London and house at Palm Springs, California[27] Schlesinger had a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated to him in January 2003, which was his final public appearance.[28][29]

Schlesinger underwent a quadruple

Palm Springs on the morning of 25 July 2003, at the age of 77.[31][2]

Schlesinger was survived by his partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. A memorial service was held on 30 September 2003.[26] He was cremated, with most of his ashes interred next to his parents, and the remainder left to be interred with Childers.[32]

Filmography

Films

Television

Documentary

Awards and honours

He was twice nominated for the

BAFTA Fellow
.

Academy Awards

BAFTA Awards

Golden Globe Awards

  • Best Director (1966) (Darling) – Nominated
  • Best Director (1970) (Midnight Cowboy) – Nominated
  • Best Director (1977) (Marathon Man) – Nominated

References

  1. required.)
  2. ^ . Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  3. ^ "Where to begin with John Schlesinger". BFI. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  4. ^ "British Film Institute – Top 100 British Films – cinemarealm.com". Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  5. ^ Mann, 2004, pp. 46, 179
  6. ^ Bond, Paul (8 August 2003). "Obituary: John Schlesinger, filmmaker, 1926–2003". World Socialist Website. International Committee of the Fourth International. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  7. ^ John Schlesinger, Gene D. Phillips, Twayne Publishers, 1981, p. 17
  8. ^ "Bernard Edward Schlesinger | RCP Museum".
  9. ^ Their life through letters was later published by their grandson Ian Buruma as Their Promised Land (Penguin, 1917.)
  10. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 54
  11. ^ Current Biography Yearbook 1970, ed. Charles Moritz, The H. W. Wilson Co., 1971, p. 377
  12. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 51
  13. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 58
  14. Encyclopedia Britannica
    . Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  15. ^ Rhodes, Rachel (25 November 2005). "Jocelyn Page – interview transcript" (PDF). British Library. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  16. ^ Benjamin Britten on Camera Video from 10:01.
  17. ^ Wiebe, Heather. Britten's Unquiet Pasts: Sound and Memory in Postwar Reconstruction. Cambridge University Press, 2012: p. 153
  18. ^ End credits of episodes of both series.
  19. ^ "Berlinale: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 8 April 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  20. Criterion Collection
    .
  21. ^ "50 Years After Midnight Cowboy, Gay Cinema Is Still a Work in Progress". LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  22. ^ "X-Rated: Inside the Myths and Legends of Midnight Cowboy". Vanity Fair. 26 February 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  23. .
  24. ^ Goldstein, Patrick (27 February 2005). "'Midnight Cowboy' and the very dark horse its makers rode in on". LA Times.
  25. ^ "No. 45117". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 June 1970. p. 6373.
  26. ^ a b "Diaries 1996–2004". Untold Stories. p. 335.
  27. .
  28. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 559
  29. ^ Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated
  30. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 556
  31. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 560
  32. ^ Mann, 2004, p. 560

Sources

  • Mann, William J. (2004). Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger. London: Hutchinson.

External links