Roy Ward Baker

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
name = Roy Ward Baker
birthdate = birth date and age|1916|12|19
birthplace = London ENG
deathdate =
deathplace =
othername =
occupation = Film director
yearsactive = 1947 - 1992
imdb_id = 0001928

Roy Ward Baker (born December 19, 1916) is an English film director born in London. His best known film is "A Night to Remember" which won a Golden Globe for best foreign English language film in 1959. His later career was varied, and included many horror films and television shows.

Baker's early career, from 1934 to 1939, was spent working for Gainsborough Pictures, a British film production company based in Islington, North London, famous for its prestige productions. His first jobs were menial - making tea for crew members, for example - but by 1938 he had risen through the ranks to work as assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes".

He served in the army during World War II, until transferring to the Army Kinematograph Unit in 1943 in order to make better use of skills developed in his pre-war career producing documentaries and teaching materials for troops. One of his superiors at the time was novelist Eric Ambler. It was he who gave Baker his first big break directing "The October Man", from an Ambler screenplay, in 1947. Ambler also adapted Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" for Baker's 1958 screen version.

During the early 1950s, Baker worked for three years in Hollywood where he directed Marilyn Monroe in "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952) and Robert Ryan in 3D film noir "Inferno" (1953). He returned to the UK for the latter part of the decade, but defected to television in the early 1960s.

He directed episodes of "The Avengers", "The Saint" and "The Champions" - all adventure series created with an eye on the American market. The low-budget ethic of television production made him well-suited to his next career move into cheaply produced but lavish-looking British horror films. He directed, among others, "Quatermass and the Pit" (1967) "The Vampire Lovers" (1970) and "Scars of Dracula" (1970) for Hammer, and "Asylum" (1972) for Amicus. He also directed Bette Davis in the black comedy "The Anniversary" (1968).

In the latter part of the 1970s he returned to television, and throughout the 1980s continued to work on shows such as "Minder". He retired in 1992.

He has contributed interviews to several DVD extras in recent years,such as those with "The Saint",and took part in the 2007 BBC 2 documentary series "British Film Forever".

Partial Filmography

Director
* Morning Departure (1950)

References

Roy Ward Baker (2000) "Director's Cut: A Memoir of 60 Years in Film and Television". Reynolds and Hearn.

External links

*
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001928/ Roy Ward Baker] at the Internet Movie Database
*

Persondata
NAME= Baker, Roy Ward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Film director
DATE OF BIRTH= December 19, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH= London ENG
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=