Christopher Frayling
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Sir Christopher John Frayling (born 25 December 1946) is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture.
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[edit] Biography
He read history at Churchill College, Cambridge and gained a PhD in the study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
He taught history at the University of Bath and in 1979 was appointed Professor of Cultural History at London's post-graduate art and design school, the Royal College of Art. Since 1996 he has been Rector in charge of the College.
He was the Chairman of Arts Council England until 2007, Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, and a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was a governor of the British Film Institute in the 1980s.
Christopher Frayling was awarded a knighthood in 2001 for "Services to Art and Design Education" and chose "PERGE SCELUS MIHI DIEM PERFICIAS" as his motto, which translates as "Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit". He wanted to evoke the well-known words attributed to Callahan in Dirty Harry: "Go ahead, punk, make my day".
He has had a wide output as a writer and critic on subjects ranging from vampires to westerns. He has written and presented television series such as The Art of Persuasion on advertising and Strange Landscape on the Middle Ages.
He has conducted a series of radio and television interviews with figures from the world of film, including Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, Ken Adam, Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood. He has also written and presented several television series, including The Face of Tutankhamun and Nightmare: Birth of Horror.
He is especially known for his study of spaghetti westerns and specifically director Sergio Leone. He has written a very popular biography of Leone, Something To Do With Death (2000); helped run the Los Angeles-based Gene Autry Museum's exhibit on Leone in the summer of 2005; and has appeared in numerous documentaries about Leone and his films, particularly the DVD documentaries of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). He also provided audio commentaries for the special edition DVD releases of A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West and Colossus of Rhodes. His brother, Nicholas Frayling is the Dean of Chichester.
[edit] Select bibliography
[edit] Literature
- Napoleon Wrote Fiction (1972)
- Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula (1978, revised 1992)
- Nightmare: Birth of Horror (1996)
[edit] History
- The Face of Tutankhamun (1992)
- Strange Landscape: Journey Through the Middle Ages (1995)
[edit] Film
- Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone (1981)
- American Westerners (1984)
- Clint Eastwood (1992)
- Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death (2000)
- Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema (2005)
- Sergio Leone: Once Upon a Time in Italy (2005)
- Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design (2005)
[edit] Education
- The Royal College of Art: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Art and Design (1987)
- Design of the Times: One Hundred Years of the Royal College of Art (1996)
- The Art Pack (1998)
[edit] External links
- Guardian profile
- Frayling on BBC Desert Island Discs
- Interview (02/2008)
- Interview (05/2004)
- Interview (02/2002)
- Interview (10/1997)
- Interview (10/1997)
- The Frayling Coat of Arms
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| Preceded by Gerry Robinson |
Chair of Arts Council England 2004– |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
