Carol Reed
| Carol Reed | |
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| Born | 30 December 1906 Putney, London, England |
| Died | 25 April 1976 (aged 69) Chelsea, London, England |
| Occupation | Film director, producer |
| Years active | 1935 ~ 1972 |
| Spouse(s) | Diana Wynyard (1943–1947) Penelope Dudley-Ward (1948–1976; his death) |
Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director best known for Odd Man Out (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), The Third Man (1949) and Oliver! (1968) for which he received the Academy Award for Best Director.[1]
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Early life and education [edit]
The illegitimate son of actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, May Pinney Reed,[2] Carol Reed was born in Putney, south-west London, and educated at The King's School, Canterbury, an independent school. He embarked on an acting career while still in his teens, became involved in the film industry taking a few roles in films.
Career as a film director [edit]
He worked as an assistant director with Basil Dean on the films Autumn Crocus, Lorna Doone and Loyalties and with Thorold Dickinson on Java Head. His earliest films as director were 'quota quickies', but his career began to take off with The Stars Look Down (1939). He followed this with Night Train to Munich (1940) and Kipps (1941), Reed served in the British Army during the Second World War working under Thorold Dickinson in the film unit. A training film The New Lot (1943) was remade as The Way Ahead (1944) recounting the experiences of five new recruits.
Reed made his most highly regarded films just after the war: Odd Man Out (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), and The Third Man (1949), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.[3] The last two films were made from screenplays by Graham Greene.
Outcast of the Islands (1952), based on a novel by Joseph Conrad, is often thought to mark the start of his creative decline.[4] Our Man in Havana (1959) reunited him with the work of Graham Greene, while Trapeze (1956) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) were American films. Oliver (1968), made at Shepperton in Surrey, was financially backed by Columbia, and won the Academy Award for Best Director. "The movie may have been over-produced but it seemed everyone liked it that way", writes Thomas Hischak.[5]
Personal life [edit]
From 1943 until 1947, he was married to the British actress Diana Wynyard. After their divorce, he married, in 1948, the actress Penelope Dudley-Ward, also known as Pempie, the elder daughter of Freda Dudley Ward, who had been a mistress of the Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) when he was Prince of Wales. They had one son, Max. His stepdaughter Tracy Reed, Ward's daughter, also had an acting career.[6] Actor Oliver Reed was his nephew.
In 1953, he became only the second British film director to be knighted for his craft. The first was Sir Alexander Korda in 1942, who was the producer of some of Reed's most admired films.
Carol Reed died from a heart attack on 25 April 1976 at his home in Chelsea, aged 69. He is buried in Kensington Cemetery, Gunnersbury, West London.
Filmography [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Malcolm, Derek (16 March 2000). "Carol Reed: The Third Man". The Guardian. "Carol Reed directed films for 40 years, but his golden period was brief. It covered three years in the late 40s when he made Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. These three films alone put him in the forefront of British directors of the period, and the last-named, his second collaboration with Graham Greene, is probably the best film noir ever made out of Britain."
- ^ "The Stars Look Down - Movie info: cast, reviews, trailer on". Mubi.com. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
- ^ Freehan, Deirdre (15 December 2010). "Carol Reed". Senses of Cinema.
- ^ David Thomson seems to think that in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, London: Little Brown, 2002, p.721, but ascribes this view to others in Have You Seen, London: Allen Lane, 2008, p.632
- ^ Thomas Hischak The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film and Television, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, p.547
- ^ Tracy Reed at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Spicer, Andrew (2006). Sydney Box. British Film Makers. Manchester University Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-0-7190-5999-5. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
- ^ "6th Moscow International Film Festival (1969)". MIFF. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
- ^ "Carol Reed, Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
- ^ "Carol Reed, Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
External links [edit]
- Carol Reed at the Internet Movie Database
- Carol Reed at AllRovi
- Carol Reed at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Carol Reed at Find a Grave
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- 1906 births
- 1976 deaths
- Beerbohm family
- Best Director Academy Award winners
- British Army personnel of World War II
- Deaths from myocardial infarction
- English film directors
- English film producers
- English people of German descent
- English people of Lithuanian descent
- Knights Bachelor
- People educated at The King's School, Canterbury
- People from Putney
