Christopher Frayling

Sir Christopher John Frayling (born 25 December 1946) is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture.

Biography

Frayling read history at Churchill College, Cambridge and gained a PhD in the study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was appointed a Fellow of the college in 2009.

He taught history at the University of Bath and was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Arts) from that University in 2003. In 1979 Frayling was appointed Professor of Cultural History at London's post-graduate art and design school, the Royal College of Art. Frayling was Rector in charge of the Royal College of Art from 1996 to 2009.

He was the Chairman of Arts Council England from 2005 until January 2009. Frayling has also been 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.

In 2001, Christopher Frayling was awarded a knighthood for "Services to Art and Design Education" and chose as his motto "PERGE SCELUS MIHI DIEM PERFICIAS", which can be translated as "Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit". He wished to suggest the well-known phrase attributed to Police Inspector Harry Callahan in the movie Sudden Impact: "Go ahead, punk, make my day". (The role of Callahan was played by Clint Eastwood.)

Frayling 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 The Colossus of Rhodes, as well as a short interview for a special feature called the Frayling Reading on the DVD release of the Dr. Who serial State of Decay. His brother, Nicholas Frayling is the Dean of Chichester.

Select bibliography

Literature

• Napoleon Wrote Fiction (1972)
• Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula (1978, revised 1992)
• Nightmare: Birth of Horror (1996)

History

• The Face of Tutankhamun (1992)
• Strange Landscape: Journey Through the Middle Ages (1995)

Film

• Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone (1981)
• American Westerners (1984)
• Clint Eastwood (1992)
• Things to Come (1995)
• 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)

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)

List of Audio Commentaries

• Beauty and the Beast
• The Colossus of Rhodes
• Duck, You Sucker!
• A Fistful of Dollars
• For a Few Dollars More
• Frankenstein
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• The Innocents
• The Magnificent Seven
• Once Upon a Time in the West, with directors John Carpenter, John Milius, and Alex Cox, film historian Dr. Sheldon Hall, and other participants

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

Media offices
Preceded by Gerry Robinson	Chair of Arts Council England 2004-2009	Succeeded by Dame Liz Forgan