Michael Anderson (director)

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Michael Joseph Anderson (born January 30, 1920 in London , England , † April 25, 2018 in Vancouver , Canada ) was a British film director .

life and career

Michael Anderson was born the son of the actors Lawrence (1893-1939) and Beatrice Anderson (1893-1977) in London. He briefly followed his parents in their profession and appeared as an actor in two films. At the same time, he began working as a production assistant and assistant director in the late 1930s. Anderson served in the Royal Corps of Signals during World War II . After gaining extensive experience as an assistant director, he made his directorial debut in 1949 with his friend Peter Ustinov in the comedy Private Angelo . He was then able to establish himself as a director of B-films, until the mid-1950s his work remained rather insignificant.

In 1955, Anderson reached a wider audience with the war drama May 1943 - The Destruction of the Dams , which was the UK's most commercially successful film that year. Here he was already successfully mixing dramatic scenes with special effects, which became one of his trademarks. He had his international breakthrough in 1956 with Around the World in 80 Days according to Jules Verne . The film, staged with a large cast, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and received five awards (including the Best Picture category ), but George Stevens received the Director's Oscar for Giants . That same year, Anderson also attracted attention with Nineteen Eighty-Four , his film adaptation of the George Orwell novel of the same name .

In the following two decades, Anderson mostly switched between film projects in England and the USA. He was very successful in 1976 with the science fiction film Escape to the 23rd Century , which grossed over 50 million US dollars and also became popular in popular culture. Other well-known films directed by Anderson include Gary Cooper's last 1961 A Man Walks His Path , 1965 Crossbow with George Peppard and Sophia Loren , In the Fisherman's Shoes from 1968 with Anthony Quinn, and the biography Die young Katharina (1991) with Julia Ormond in the title role. His last work in 1999 was the German-British-Luxembourg coproduction The New Adventures of Pinocchio .

Anderson's son Michael Anderson Jr. by first marriage is a British actor in film and television. The director was married to actress Adrienne Ellis in his third marriage in 1977 , so his stepdaughter was actress Laurie Holden . Anderson died in April 2018 at the age of 98 in Vancouver, Canada.

Filmography

As an actor

As a director

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Sugerman, Mike Barnes: Michael Anderson, Director of 'Logan's Run' and 'Around the World in 80 Days,' Dies at 98. In: The Hollywood Reporter. April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2018 .
  2. ↑ See Michael Anderson's biographical data in Larry Langman: Destination Hollywood: The Influence of Europeans on American Filmmaking . McFarland, 2000, p. 160.
  3. ↑ Michael Anderson | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved April 24, 2018 .
  4. ↑ RAF DAM BUSTERS OF 1943 . In: Age (Melbourne, Vic .: 1854-1954) . Melbourne, Vic. June 26, 1954, p. 16 ( gov.au [accessed April 24, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Michael Anderson | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved April 24, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Anderson, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anderson, Michael Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film director
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 2018
Place of death Vancouver