Don Sharp

Don Sharp
Born	Donald Herman Sharp 19 April 1921(1921-04-19) Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died	14 December 2011(2011-12-14) (aged 90)
Occupation	Producer, director, writer

Donald Herman "Don" Sharp (19 April 1921 – 14 December 2011) was an Australian-born British film director.

His most famous films were made for Hammer Studios in the 1960s, and included The Kiss of the Vampire (1962) and Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1965). Also in 1965 he directed The Face of Fu Manchu, based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, here played by Christopher Lee. Sharp also directed the first sequel The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966). In the 1980s he was also responsible for several hugely popular miniseries adapted from the novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford.

Biography

Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own claims, even though reference sources cite 1922 as his year of birth. He attended St Virgil's College. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 7 April 1941 and was discharged on 17 March 1944 at the rank of corporal.

After the war he worked as an actor on stage and radio throughout Australia and in Japan. He then moved to England where he produced and co-wrote a film, Ha'penny Breeze (1950). He continued to act with small roles in such films as The Planter's Wife (1952) and The Cruel Sea (1953). He also played the character Stephen "Mitch" Mitchell in the 1953 British science fiction radio series, Journey into Space, but began to turn increasingly to writing and directing.

Sharp directed the first British rock 'n' roll movie, The Golden Disc (1958), released a year before the Cliff Richard vehicle Expresso Bongo (1959) and a full two years ahead of Beat Girl (1960). In Psychomania (1971), Sharp creates a visual fugue by riffing on the great themes of the counter-culture era: bikers, standing stones and ritual magic.

Among his other credits are Curse of the Fly, the spy-comedy Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), the fantasy Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967) and the 1978 remake of The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell. He made another foray into spy culture with his feature-length reprise of the gritty Cold War TV drama, Callan (1974) starring Edward Woodward.

Sharp died on 14 December 2011, after a short spell in hospital. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.

Filmography

Sharp's film work includes:

• Ha'penny Breeze (1950)
• Background (1953)
• Conflict of Wings (1954)
• The Golden Disc (1959)
• Linda (1960)
• Two Guys Abroad (1962)
• It's All Happening (1963)
• The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
• Witchcraft (1964)
• The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964)
• Curse of the Fly (1965)
• The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
• Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966)
• Our Man in Marrakesh (1966)
• The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)
• The Violent Enemy (1967)
• Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967)
• A Taste of Excitement (1969)
• Dark Places (1973)
• Psychomania (1973)
• Callan (1974)
• Hennessy (1975)
• The Four Feathers (1977)
• The Thirty Nine Steps (1978)
• Bear Island (1979)
• A Woman of Substance (1984) (TV)
• What Waits Below (1985)
• Hold the Dream (1986) (TV)
• Tears in the Rain (1988) (TV)
• Act of Will (1989) (TV)

External links

• Don Sharp at the Internet Movie Database
• Obituary from The Times with funeral arrangements.