Tony Richardson

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Tony Richardson by Reginald Gray

Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (born June 5, 1928 in Shipley , Yorkshire , England , † November 14, 1991 in Los Angeles , California , United States ) was a British director , screenwriter and producer .

life and career

Tony Richardson in 1928 in Shipley in the northern English born Yorkshire, the son of a pharmacist. Richardson never really enjoyed his homeland. This rejection was compounded when he was fortunate enough to be accepted into one of the exclusive colleges at Oxford University as one of the few middle-class students . There he devoted himself to the institute's own theater, which also had a strong impact on his later work in the film business.

After graduating from college, he first worked as a producer and director for the BBC . In 1956 he produced his first short film called Momma Don't Allow in collaboration with the Czech- British director Karel Reisz and the German cameraman Walter Lassally . This film was shown in the short film program Free Cinema , which was founded by Tony Richardson with Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz. With a look back in Zorn , The Comedian , Bitter Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , four more free cinema films by Richardson followed. He produced all four films in the company "Woodfall Films", which he founded with John Osborne .

Richardson hated working in the studio because his television experience had shown him that it restricted his creativity and kept him at a distance from his material. But physically he was also very limited, which played an important role in his films. He had a talent for bringing his actors into a relationship with their environment, which has shaped all his films, no matter what time or genre they come from.

After the black and white free cinema films, Richardson and Walter Lassally wanted “something full of color and fun” and came across the novel Tom Jones: The Story of a Foundling by Henry Fielding . The resulting film Tom Jones - Between Bed and Gallows became a great financial success for Woodfall Films and received ten Academy Awards in four categories at the 1964 Academy Awards : for best film, best director, best screenplay and the best music.

Richardson celebrated his first success in Hollywood with his film Death in Hollywood , a satire on the American way of living and dying.

In 1962, Richardson married British actress Vanessa Redgrave . The marriage that resulted in two daughters - actresses Natasha and Joely Richardson - divorced in 1967.

Tony Richardson died of AIDS on November 14, 1991 in Los Angeles . His last film Operation Blue Sky did not appear until after his death.

Filmography

Awards

Oscar (Academy Award)
  • Academy Awards 1964 : Best Picture for Tom Jones - Between Bed and Gallows
  • Academy Awards 1964: Best Director for Tom Jones - Between Bed and Gallows
  • Academy Awards 1964: Best Adapted Screenplay for Tom Jones - Between Bed and Gallows
  • Academy Awards 1964: Best Original Music for Tom Jones - Between Bed and Gallows

Fonts

  • Tony Richardson: Long Distance Runner. Memoirs. London 1993.

literature

  • Alexander Walker: Hollywood UK. New York 1974.
  • John Wakeman: World Film Directors. Vol. 2: 1945-1985. New York 1988, pp. 878-883
  • Don Radovich: Tony Richardson. A bio bibliography. Westport 1995.
  • James M. Welsh, John C. Tibbetts (Eds.): The Cinema of Tony Richardson. Essays and Interviews. New York 1999.
  • Heinz-Jürgen Köhler: [Article] Tony Richardson. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Ed. 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 632-634.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Tony Richardson
  2. ↑ Quoted from: Heinz-Jürgen Köhler: [Entry] "Tony Richardson". In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . 3rd, completely revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , Vol. 13, pp. 632-634.
personal data
SURNAME Richardson, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richardson, Cecil Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British director, screenwriter and producer
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Shipley , England , UK
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1991
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States