Jack Lee (film director)
Wilfred John Raymond "Jack" Lee (27 January 1913 – 15 October 2002) was a British film director, screenwriter, editor and producer.
Lee was born in the village of Slad near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Among his films are The Wooden Horse (1950),[1] a Second World War film; A Town Like Alice (1956), starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, based on Nevil Shute's novel;[2] and Robbery Under Arms (1957), a Western-style adventure set in Australia, based on the 1888 novel by "Rolf Boldrewood". He served as chairman (1976–81) of the South Australian Film Corporation,[3] which started the careers of Bruce Beresford and Peter Weir.
Lee was the eldest brother of Laurie Lee, author of Cider with Rosie, in childhood growing up the two were very close but in later life they fell out. They were always natural rivals with Jack getting a place at the grammar school (Marling School in Stroud), an advantage not granted to Laurie who went to Stroud Central School for Boys.[4]
Marriages
He was married two times, in 1946 to British casting director Nora Dawson (née Nora Francisca Blackburne) (21 April 1914 – 7 July 2009), in which they had two children, after her divorce from Adam Alexander Dawson,[5] and in 1963 to Isabel Kidman, and had two children. He returned frequently to Britain, but spent the rest of his life in Australia, and died in Sydney, Australia in 2002.
References
- ^ Profile, radiotimes.com; accessed 16 May 2016.
- ^ Profile, Halliwells Film 2007; ISBN 978-0-00-723470-7
- ^ The Making of an Australian Film The Age, 16 June 1976
- ^ McFarlane, Brian. "Lee, (Wilfred) Jack Raymond". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/77340. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ The way we were: my life in pictures, The Times 23 August 2005
External links
- Jack Lee at the BFI's Screenonline
