David Puttnam

David Puttnam
Puttnam at the Orange British Academy Film Awards in London's Royal Opera House in February 2007
Born	David Terence Puttnam 25 February 1941 (1941-02-25) (age 68) London, England
Occupation	Film producer and Politician
Spouse(s)	Patricia Mary Jones (1961-)

David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, FRSA, (born 25 February 1941) is a film producer and politician. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.

Early life

He was educated at Minchenden Grammar School in London and had an early career in advertising (see Collett Dickenson Pearce) and acting as agent for the photographer David Bailey.

Film career

He turned to film production in the late 1960s, working with Sanford Lieberson's production company Goodtimes Enterprises. His successes as a producer include Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, The Duellists (Ridley Scott's feature film debut), Chariots of Fire (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), Local Hero, Memphis Belle, Meeting Venus and The Killing Fields and The Mission with Roland Joffé (which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986) mostly in association with Goldcrest.

He was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988. During his time at Columbia he was criticised for what some saw as a condescending attitude toward the Hollywood film industry, and for not sufficiently exploiting the studio's few box office hits. This strategic failure contributed to the sale of the studio to Sony.

In May 2006 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Politics

He was appointed CBE in 1983, was knighted in 1995 and was created a life peer in 1997, as Baron Puttnam of Queensgate in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In 1998 Puttnam was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party (UK). ^[1] In 2002 he chaired the joint scrutiny committee on the Communications Bill, which recommended an amendment to prevent ownership of British terrestrial TV stations by companies with a significant share of the newspaper market. This was widely interpreted as being aimed at stopping Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation from buying Five. When the government opposed the amendment, Puttnam brokered a compromise — the introduction of a "public interest" test to be applied by the new regulator Ofcom, but without explicit restrictions.

From 2004-2005 Puttnam chaired the Hansard Society Commission on the Communication of Parliamentary Democracy, the final report of which urged all political parties to commit to a renewal of parliamentary life in an attempt to reinvigorate representative democracy.^[2][3] In 2007, he chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft Climate Change Bill. Puttnam is currently a trustee of the think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Lord Puttnam on 10 July 2006 at the University of Sunderland School of Computing and Technology Awards Ceremony.

Association with education

He was for 10 years chairman of the National Film and Television School and taught people such as Nick Park. He founded Skillset, which trains young people to become members of the film and television industries. In 2002 he was elected UK president of Unicef.

Lord Puttnam was the first chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1997 until 13 July 2007. He was appointed an Honorary Doctor of Education during the School of Education and Lifelong Learning's Academic Awards Ceremonies in his final week as Chancellor and was granted the Freedom of the City of Sunderland upon his retirement. In 1998 he founded the National Teaching Awards and became its first chairman. He was the founding chairman of the General Teaching Council 2000-2002. He was appointed as chancellor of the Open University in 2006.^[4] He was also the Chairman of NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) from 1998 until 2003. He is also chairman of Futurelab and on the board of directors of learning technologies company Promethean.

BAFTA Award and Fellowship

In 1982 he received the BAFTA Michael Balcon Award for his outstanding contribution to the British Film Industry. In February 2006, he was awarded the Orange BAFTA Fellowship of the Academy. He made the occasion notable by delivering a particularly moving homage to his late father who had died before he received his Oscar for Chariots of Fire.. He also congratulated contemporary filmakers (specifically George Clooney) for making films with integrity: the lack of such films being produced had been the reason for his retirement from the film industry in the late 1990s.^[5]

On 12 July 2007, he was given the freedom of the City of Sunderland.^[6] He suffers from ME, severely debilitating him on occasions.

Other Interests

In April 2007 he became the chairman of Profero, a London based digital marketing agency. He explained the move saying: "My experience over the past forty odd (some very odd) years has encompassed marketing, entertainment and social issues, a fascinating mix that is integral to the daily lives of consumers and citizens. A business that can combine and magnify these dynamics can only create incredible value for their clients and, as a by-product, themselves. To me Profero is in just such a position, and it’s now my job to help them realise their potential."^[7]

He is patron of SCHOOLS NorthEast, an organisation set up in 2007 to promote education and forge relationships between schools in the North East of England.

Puttnam, who had produced Ian Charleson's star-making film Chariots of Fire, contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.^[8]

He has also preached at Durham Cathedral at the feast of the Cathedral's commemoration of its founders and benefactors.^[9]

Further Reading

• Yule, Andrew (1989). Fast Fade: David Puttnam, Columbia Pictures, and the Battle For Hollywood. Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-440-50177-6. 

References

External links

• University of Sunderland
• The Open University
• Futurelab's Board of Trustees
• David Puttnam at the Internet Movie Database
• "Opening windows". BBC News. 19 February 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/sunday_am/4729128.stm.  - transcript of Sunday AM interview with Huw Edwards

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