Herbert Wise (director, 1924)

Herbert Wise (born August 31, 1924 in Vienna as Herbert Weisz ; † August 5, 2015 in London ) was an Austrian - British director and producer of television films.

Life

Wise was born in Vienna in 1924 to Jewish parents. After the “ Anschluss of Austria ” to Nazi Germany, Wise was sent by his parents to Great Britain on a Kindertransport in 1939 , where he spent the first years of the war with a foster family in Surrey . He attended secondary school in Oxted before leaving his foster family at the age of 16 to work in a chemistry laboratory to contribute to the war effort against Germany in World War II . He later volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was recruited into British intelligence before the war ended.

After the war, Wise began his training at the New Era Academy in Hampstead , north London. During his training he Anglicized his maiden name Weisz zu Wise . He began his career as director of the Shrewsbury Repertory Company in 1950, then at the Hull Repertory Theater and from 1952 to 1955 at the Dundee Repertory Theater in Dundee, Scotland .

In 1956 he won a place in a training course organized by Granada TV in preparation for the TV channel's launch. At first, Wise was assigned to outside broadcasts despite his experience with theater productions, but was able to recommend himself for the production of TV dramas via the live broadcast of improvised, fictional court cases . After disagreements with Granada TV's general manager Sidney Bernstein , Wise was fired, but quickly got back on BBC2 with the acclaimed English Civil War drama The Siege of Manchester - exactly in the region that Bernstein claimed as Granadaland for his television station.

In 1976 Wise's best-known work as the director of Ich, Claudius on BBC2 followed, a book adaptation with Derek Jacobi in the leading role as Claudius . In 1979 he was awarded a BAFTA for his services to television.

In the 1980s, Wise directed American productions such as Cross of Violence (Skokie) (1981) and John Paul II - His Path to Rome (1984). The former earned Wise an Emmy and DGA Movies for Television Award nomination .

In the 2000s, Wise returned to American television to direct the miniseries The Tenth Kingdom .

Private

Wise married actress Moira Redmond in 1963 . After divorcing their first marriage, he married Fiona Walker in 1988 . The second marriage had two children, including Susannah Wise , who is also an actress.

Web links

• Herbert Wise in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Obituaries: The Guardian , Daily Telegraph