Jonathan Bates
Jonathan Bates (born November 1, 1939 in Little Chart , Kent , England , † October 31, 2008 in Esher , Surrey , England) was a British sound engineer .
Life
Bates, born the youngest son of the English writer Herbert Ernest Bates , was educated at King's School in Canterbury. Thanks to the influence of the director David Lean , who was a friend of his father , the young Bates developed the desire to work in the film business at an early age.
Shortly after his 16th birthday, his father arranged for him to do an internship at Ealing Studios , where, among other things, he made tea for Alec Guinness while filming Captain Seasick . He stayed until the Ealing Studios closed in May 1959 and then worked as a freelance film editor .
While filming ... where the wind blows in 1961 he met his future wife, Jennifer Thompson, who also worked as a film editor. In the following year, at the age of 22, he worked for the first time as a sound engineer at Endstation 13 Sahara ; the beginning of a four decades long film career. In the 1960s he worked on Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Has Disappeared and the war film Agents Die Lonely , and in 1971 he worked on Roman Polański's Macbeth .
A long collaboration with Richard Attenborough began in 1972 with The Young Lion , and Bates subsequently worked on all of Attenborough's major films, including Chaplin , In Love and War and Gray Owl and the Treasure of the Beavers , and was nominated for several film awards. For Gandhi he was nominated in 1983 for an Oscar in the category of best sound and for the BAFTA film award nomination in the category of best sound . After another 1986 BAFTA Film Award nomination for A Chorus Line , he received the 1988 award for Freedom Cry . In 2007 he returned from retirement for Attenborough's last film Closing the Ring .
Bates died at the age of 68. He left behind his wife, with whom he had been married since 1966, and two children. The actress Victoria Wicks is his niece.
Filmography (selection)
- 1965: Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 Minutes)
- 1966: Return of the Seven (Return of the Seven)
- 1968: Agents Die Alone (Where Eagles Dare)
- 1970: Assault Troop Gold (Kelly's Heroes)
- 1973: The Night of a Thousand Eyes (Night Watch)
- 1974: Murder on the Orient Express (Murder on the Orient Express)
- 1976: The Eagle Has Landed (The Eagle Has Landed)
- 1980: Flash Gordon
- 1982: Gandhi
- 1985: A Chorus Line
- 1987 Cry Freedom (Cry Freedom)
- 1988: A Fish Called Wanda (A Fish Called Wanda)
- 1993: The Man Without a Face (The Man Without a Face)
- 1998: Les Misérables
- 2002: Nicholas Nickleby
Awards
- 1983 : Oscar nomination for Best Sound for Gandhi
- 1983: BAFTA Film Award nomination in the Best Sound category for Gandhi
- 1986: BAFTA Film Award nomination in the Best Sound category for A Chorus Line
- 1988: BAFTA Film Award for Best Sound for Freedom Cry
Web links
- Jonathan Bates in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Obituary of Guardian (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oscars 1983 (English)
- ↑ BAFTA Awards 1983 (English)
- ↑ BAFTA Awards 1986 (English)
- ↑ BAFTA Awards 1988 (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bates, Jonathan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British sound engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Little Chart , Kent , England , United Kingdom |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 31, 2008 |
| Place of death | Esher , Surrey , England , United Kingdom |