Lewis Gilbert

Lewis Gilbert
Born	6 March 1920 (1920-03-06) (age 89) London, England, United Kingdom

Lewis Gilbert CBE (born 6 March 1920) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter, born in London. After a career as a child actor in films in the 1920s and 1930s, he began shooting documentary films for the Royal Air Force during World War II. Gilbert made his name in the 1950s with a series of successful films as director, and often writer and producer as well. These were often based on true stories from World War II. Examples include Reach for the Sky (1956) (based on the life of air ace Douglas Bader), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) (the story of SOE agent Violette Szabo) and Sink the Bismarck! (1960).

In 1966 Gilbert directed Alfie starring Michael Caine. Gilbert said the film was only made because the low budget was "the sort of money Paramount executives normally spend on cigar bills".^{[cite this quote]} The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including best picture. Gilbert was nominated for a Golden Globe for best director, and the film was remade in 2004 with Jude Law.

In 1967, Gilbert was chosen to direct Lionel Bart's musical of Oliver! but had to pull out and Carol Reed took over.

Despite being known for character dramas, Gilbert directed three of the most epic and expansive installments of the James Bond series. After some reluctance, he was persuaded by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli to direct You Only Live Twice in 1967. Gilbert returned to the series to make two more films, The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 and Moonraker in 1979.

In the 1980s he returned to more small-scale dramas with successful film versions of Willy Russell's plays Educating Rita (1983) and Shirley Valentine (1989).

Lewis Gilbert was awarded the Fellowship of the British Film Institute in 2001.

Director

Feature films

• Sailors Do Care (1944)
• The Ten Year Plan (1945)
• Under One Roof (1946)
• Arctic Harvest (1946)
• The Little Ballerina (1948)
• Once a Sinner (1950)
• There Is Another Sun (1951)
• Scarlet Thread (1951)
• Cosh Boy (1952)
• Emergency Call (1952)
• Time Gentlemen Please! (1952)
• Johnny on the Run (1953)
• Albert R.N. (1953)
• The Good Die Young (1954)
• The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954)
• Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
• Reach for the Sky (1956)
• The Admirable Crichton (1957)
• Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)
• A Cry from the Streets (1958)
• Ferry to Hong Kong (1959)
• Light Up the Sky! (1960)
• Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
• The Greengage Summer (1961)
• H.M.S. Defiant (1962)
• The 7th Dawn (1964)
• Alfie (1966)
• You Only Live Twice (1967)
• The Adventurers (1970)
• Friends (1971)
• Paul and Michelle (1974)
• Operation Daybreak (1975)
• Seven Nights in Japan (1976)
• The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
• Moonraker (1979)
• Educating Rita (1983)
• Not Quite Jerusalem (1986)
• Shirley Valentine (1989)
• Stepping Out (1991)
• Haunted (1995)
• Before You Go (2002)

External links

• Lewis Gilbert at the Internet Movie Database
• www.lewisgilbert.info