Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Donald Cammell

 
Writer: Donald Cammell
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jan 17, 1934 in Scotland
  • Died: Apr 24, 1996 in Hollywood Hills, California
  • Occupation: Writer, Director, Actor
  • Active: '60s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Avant-garde / Experimental, Thriller
  • Career Highlights: Performance, White of the Eye, Wild Side
  • First Major Screen Credit: Duffy (1968)

Biography

Though he had only four feature-length directorial efforts to his credit over his 27-year-long career, filmmaker/screenwriter Donald Cammell was known for his offbeat, somewhat uneven, though usually interesting work. His psychedelic 1970 psychodrama Performance, starring Mick Jagger, James Fox, and Michelle Breton, remains a cult favorite as is the underrated sci-fi thriller Demon Seed (1977), in which a super computer takes over its creator's home, seals all exits, and tries taking control of the scientist's wife. Performance, with its stylish use of color, quick cuts, and wild camera work, is said to have been an ancestor to the rock videos popularized on MTV in the early '80s. Cammell started out as a painter who found popularity amongst the hip in 1960s London. He later used his experiences then as the basis for stories and scripts. Cammell received his first co-writing credit with Duffy (1968), the story of an aging hippy who sets out to kill the wealthy father of greedy brothers. Following Demon Seed, Cammell did not complete another directorial project until White of the Eye (1988). Although critically acclaimed, a bankruptcy delayed its U.S. release, and when it did show, audiences rejected it. Still, the brutal thriller caught Hollywood's eye. Cammell then embarked upon a series of never-completed projects including the writing of 3000 which was later sold to Disney and made into Pretty Woman (1990). Cammell was working on two projects for Marlon Brando, FanTan and Jericho, but neither were completed as the backer, Cine Fin, fell apart. A third project with Brando and Johnny Depp, Divine Rapture, never made it past its first two weeks of filming. Cammell finally completed a film, Wild Side, in 1995. A sexual thriller originally over two and a half hours long, the work was cut down significantly by the production company and marketed on cable. Cammell was distraught and had his name removed from the credits. He remained in a deep depression, and on April 23, 1996, he shot himself in the head. Cammell is survived by his wife and occasional screenwriting partner China Cammell. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Donald Cammell
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia

Donald Seaton Cammell (17 January 1934 – 24 April 1996) was a Scottish film director who enjoys a cult reputation thanks to his debut film Performance, which he co-directed with Nicolas Roeg.

Contents

Biography

Born in the camera obscura (then known as outlook tower) on Castlehill, near the castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of the poet and writer Charles Richard Cammell. The older Cammell wrote a biography of Aleister Crowley focussing principally on the occultist's poetry and Crowley, who lived near the Cammells for a time, knew the young Donald. A prodigy, he was a society portrait painter and, thanks to family connections, a prominent fixture of the 'swinging London' social scene of the 1960s, specifically of what became known as the 'Chelsea Set'.

He wrote and co-directed Performance with Nicolas Roeg in 1968, though didn't get another film produced until Demon Seed in 1977. He also made the eccentric horror thriller White Of The Eye in 1987. Between infrequent film and TV directing jobs, Cammell directed music videos for the likes of U2.

When Cammell's 1995 film Wild Side was cut by the producer, he committed suicide in Hollywood, California by shooting himself, though his wife claimed the wound was not immediately fatal, and that he asked for a mirror so that he could watch himself die. (This is disputed in the published Cammell biography.) A posthumous "director's cut", commissioned by FilmFour, and edited by his widow and co-screenwriter China Kong and editor Frank Mazzola, was released in 2000 to critical acclaim.

In 2005, Fan-Tan, a novel Cammell conceived with actor Marlon Brando in 1978, was published.

Performance

Cammell was a central figure in the making of Performance. In writing the screenplay he drew on both his familiarity with the London underworld of the 1960s and association with the pop musicians of the day. In his collaboration with Roeg, Cammell concentrated on working with the actors, and took heavy responsibility for the prolonged editing process of the film in California; producer Sanford 'Sandy' Lieberson and co-director Roeg were by then committed to other projects.

Filmography

References

Text document with red question mark.svg
 This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2009)

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Writer. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Donald Cammell".  Read more