Stepford Wives film director Bryan Forbes dies aged 86
He was not on the list.
Film director Bryan Forbes has died "following a long
illness" at the age of 86, a family spokesman has said.
Forbes' work included the original 1970s thriller Stepford
Wives and Whistle Down The Wind.
The "giant of cinema" was married to British
actress Nanette Newman and had two daughters, TV presenter Emma Forbes and
journalist Sarah Standing.
Forbes died surrounded by his family at his home in Virginia
Water, Surrey, family friend Matthew D'Ancona said.
Forbes was made a CBE in 2004 for services to the arts and
to the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.
He was awarded the Dilys Powell Award for outstanding
contribution to cinema at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards in 2006.
Mr D'Ancona said: "Bryan Forbes was a titan of cinema,
known and loved by people around the world in the film and theatre industries,
and known in other fields including politics.
We have lost a
great man of UK cinema.
Kenneth Branagh
"He is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that
he died surrounded by his family."
The actor and director Kenneth Branagh paid tribute to
Forbes describing him as a "superb British film-maker of astonishing
range".
"In life and art he was courageous, passionate and
humane," he said.
"In his early days as a writer and director he was a
pioneering and revolutionary artist. We have lost a great man of UK
cinema."
Behind camera
Forbes, who was born John Theobald Clarke in east London on
22 July 1926, made his screen acting debut in 1948.
Image caption Richard Attenborough (l) and Bryan Forbes
founded Beaver Films (pictured with wives Sheila Sim and Nanette Newman)
He landed supporting parts in several notable British films
including An Inspector Calls (1954) and The Colditz Story (1955) - but it was
not long before screenwriting and directing lured him behind the camera.
Together with Richard Attenborough, he set up Beaver Films
in 1959. Its first release, The Angry Silence (1960), was written by Forbes and
featured Attenborough in the lead role.
His directing career began in 1961 with Whistle Down the
Wind, featuring child star Hayley Mills.
Forbes directed many more films in the 1960s and early
1970s, including Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), The Wrong Box (1966) and The
Raging Moon (1971), which starred Nanette Newman, whom he had married in 1955.
In 1969 he took over as head of production and managing
director of EMI-MGM Elstree, and under his tenure the studio achieved notable
successes with The Railway Children and Tales of Beatrix Potter.
But it was a torrid time for the company, beset by financial
difficulties and staffing issues, and Forbes resigned in 1971.
He then directed The Stepford Wives, based on the novel by
Ira Levin, in 1975 and International Velvet, starring Tatum O'Neal, in 1978.
Film critic Mark Kermode paid tribute to Forbes on Twitter,
writing: "Once had the fan-boyish pleasure of telling Bryan Forbes how
much I loved Stepford Wives. He was charming and self-effacing. A great
loss."
Image caption Forbes married Nanette Newman in 1955
Forbes, who counted the late Queen Mother among his friends,
continued directing, writing and acting throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
He also found success as an author with a number of novels,
the latest of which - The Soldier's Story - was published last year.
Last June he told the Daily Mail how he was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis in 1975 but doctors later admitted the diagnosis was wrong.
In the same interview he said he would want to be remembered
as "somebody not taken in by fame".
Select filmography
As actor
The Small Back
Room (1949) as Peterson, dying gunner
All Over the Town
(1949) as Trumble
Dear Mr. Prohack
(1949) as Tony
The Wooden Horse
(1950) as Paul
Green Grow the
Rushes (1951) as Fred Starling - Biddle crew member
Flesh and Fury
(1952) as Fighter (uncredited)
The World in His
Arms (1952) as William Cleggett
Appointment in
London (1953) as The Brat
Sea Devils (1953)
as Willie
Wheel of Fate
(1953) as Ted Reid
The Million Pound
Note (1954) as Todd
An Inspector Calls
(1954) as Eric
Up to His Neck
(1954) as Subby
The Colditz Story
(1955) as Jimmy Winslow
Passage Home
(1955) as Shorty
Now and Forever
(1956) as Frisby
Mabrouka (1956) as
Dying Soldier (scenes deleted)
The Baby and the
Battleship (1956) as Prof. Evans
Satellite in the
Sky (1956) as Jimmy
It's Great to Be
Young (1956) as Mr. Parkes, Organ Salesman.
The Extra Day
(1956) as Harry
Quatermass 2
(1957) as Marsh
The Key (1958) as
Weaver
I Was Monty's
Double (1958) as Young Lieutenant
Yesterday's Enemy
(1959) as Dawson
The Angry Silence
(1960) as Journalist (uncredited)
The League of
Gentlemen (1960) as Martin Porthill
The Guns of
Navarone (1961) as Cohn
Of Human Bondage
(1964) (uncredited)
A Shot in the Dark
(1964, credited as Turk Thrust) as Camp Attendant
King Rat (1965) as
Radio (voice, uncredited)
The Slipper and
the Rose (1976) as Herald (uncredited)
International
Velvet (1978) as Awards Presenter (uncredited)
Restless Natives
(1985) as Driver
As screenwriter
The Cockleshell
Heroes (1955)
Station Six-Sahara
(1962)
Only Two Can Play
(1962)
Hopscotch (1980)
Chaplin (1992)
As director
Whistle Down the
Wind (1961)
The L-Shaped Room
(1962)
Séance on a Wet
Afternoon (1964)
King Rat (1965)
The Wrong Box
(1966)
The Whisperers
(1967)
Deadfall (1968)
The Madwoman of
Chaillot (1969)
The Raging Moon
(1971)
The Stepford Wives
(1975)
The Slipper and
the Rose (1976)
International
Velvet (1978)
Better Late Than
Never (1983)
The Naked Face
(1984)
The Endless Game
(1989)
As head of EMI films
And Soon the
Darkness (1970)
The Breaking of
Bumbo (1970)
Hoffman (1970)
Eyewitness (1970)
The Man Who
Haunted Himself (1970)
Spring and Port
Wine (1970)
The Railway
Children (1970)
A Fine and Private
Place (1970) (abandoned)
The Go-Between
(1971)
Mr. Forbush and
the Penguins (1971)
The Tales of
Beatrix Potter (1971)
The Raging Moon
(1971)
Dulcima (1971)
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