John Schlesinger (1926-2003) b. London, England.

After Oxford John Schlesinger worked as an actor, playing the occasional bit part in British films in the fifties. Encouraged and supported by the BBC he made a number of short arts subjects for the Monitor programme, but eventually achieved public prominence with a documentary about Waterloo station, Terminus (1961). His early feature films were part of the sixties new wave; A Kind of Loving (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) all noted as exemplary film-making. Skilled at observing contemporary life, Schlesinger’s films have always been imbued with a cynical quality of the moment, a trap that leads to premature dating. In 1969 he achieved considerable success with his first American picture, Midnight Cowboy (1969), and consolidated it a couple of years later with Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971). His subsequent films like Marathon Man (1976) and Cold Comfort Farm (1995) showed a very talented directorial mind at work.