Michael Deeley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 August 1932 England |
| Occupation | Film producer |
| Notable work | The Italian Job The Deer Hunter Blade Runner |
Michael Deeley (born 6 August 1932) is an Academy Award-winning British film producer known for motion pictures such as The Italian Job (1969), The Deer Hunter (1978), and Blade Runner (1982). He is also a founding member and Honorary President of British Screen Forum.
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(September 2015) |
Deeley's father was a director at McCann Erickson advertising agency, and his mother was a PA to several film producers. He attended Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. After national service in Malaysia during the time of the Malayan Emergency, Deeley gained a job through his mother's connections as an assistant editor at a company run by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
While editing the TV show The Adventures of Robin Hood , with his editing partner Harry Booth, the two men decided to branch into a producing partnership. They raised funds to produce a 26-minute short starring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956). This launched Deeley's producing career, although he did not give up his day job as editor for a few years. [2]
In the early 1960s, Deeley worked for the UK sales arm of MCA Universal for three years, then he returned to producing with Sandy the Reluctant Nudist (1963, released 1966) and One Way Pendulum (1964). The latter was made for Woodfall Film Productions who hired Deeley in 1964 to assist Oscar Lewenstein, a director of the company.
Deeley produced Robbery (1967), which began a partnership with Stanley Baker to make films through Oakhurst Productions. Along with Baker and Barry Spikings, Deeley also established a series of companies all called "Great Western" which did a variety of activities, including music festivals (Great Western Festivals), and investments (Great Western Investments). Great Western Investments later took over British Lion Films in 1973, and Deeley was appointed managing director of that company. [2] [3]
While at British Lion, Deeley oversaw the release of Don't Look Now (1973) and The Wicker Man (1973), and helped finance The Internecine Project , Who? , Ransom (all 1974) and Conduct Unbecoming (1975). He also produced The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).
In 1976, after British Lion merged with EMI Films, Deeley and Spikings took over management of that company. [4] [5] They oversaw a series of mostly successful films including Convoy , The Driver , Death on the Nile , Warlords of Atlantis and The Deer Hunter (all 1978). [6] [7] [8]
Deeley left the company in 1979 and produced Blade Runner (1982). [9]
In 1984 Deeley was appointed CEO of Consolidated, a TV company seeking to further expand into US network television. [2]
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives are upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, with John Cazale, Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza playing supporting roles. The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a working-class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, and in Vietnam.
Sir William Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a producer.
Barry Spikings is a British film producer who worked in Hollywood. Spikings is best known as a producer of the film The Deer Hunter (1978), which won five Academy Awards.
Hampton Lansden Fancher is an American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, who co-wrote the 1982 neo-noir science fiction film Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. His 1999 directorial debut, The Minus Man, won the Special Grand Prize of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival.
EMI Films was a British film studio and distributor. A subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief connection with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Anglo-EMI, the division under Nat Cohen, and the later company as part of the Thorn EMI conglomerate are outlined here.
Robbery is a 1967 British crime film directed by Peter Yates and starring Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet and James Booth. The story is a heavily fictionalised version of the 1963 Great Train Robbery. The film was produced by Stanley Baker and Michael Deeley, for Baker's company Oakhurst Productions.
Peter James Yates was an English film director and producer. He is known for directing such films as Bullitt (1968), John and Mary (1969), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Breaking Away (1979), and The Dresser (1983). He received nominations for four Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Nat Cohen was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of the most significant figures in the British film industry, particularly in his capacity as head of Anglo-Amalgamated and EMI Films; he helped finance the first Carry On movies and early work of filmmakers such as Ken Loach, John Schlesinger, Alan Parker and David Puttnam. In the early 1970s while head of EMI Films he was called the most powerful man in the British film industry. He's been called "an unsung giant of British film who never got his due from the establishment in part because of anti-Semitism... the ability to be a successful studio head is very rare and most only last a few years. Cohen did it successfully at various companies for over two decades."
The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn is a 30-minute comedy film directed by Joseph Sterling and starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Dick Emery. It was made in November 1955, and released in 1956.
Where's Jack? is a 1969 British adventure film recounting the exploits of notorious 18th-century criminal Jack Sheppard and London "Thief-Taker General" Jonathan Wild.
British Lion Films is a film production and distribution company active under several forms since 1919. Originally known as British Lion Film Corporation Ltd, it entered receivership on 1 June 1954. From 29 January 1955 to 1976, the company was known as British Lion Films Ltd, and was a pure distribution company.
The Internecine Project is a 1974 British espionage thriller film written by Mort W. Elkind, Barry Levinson, and Jonathan Lynn, directed by Ken Hughes and starring James Coburn and Lee Grant.
Ransom, known in North America and some countries as The Terrorists, is a 1975 British crime film starring Sean Connery and Ian McShane and directed by Finnish director Caspar Wrede.
Conduct Unbecoming is a 1975 British period legal drama film directed by Michael Anderson and adapted by Robert Enders from Barry England's play of the same name. It features an ensemble cast, starring Michael York, Richard Attenborough, Trevor Howard, Stacy Keach, Christopher Plummer and Susannah York. Set in a British Indian Army barracks in the late 19th-century, the film centers on an impromptu court-martial following the assault of an officer's widow.
The Long Day's Dying is a 1968 British Techniscope war film directed by Peter Collinson, based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Alan White and starring David Hemmings. It was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France. The film was then able to compete at the 1968 San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it won its top prize, the Golden Shell for Best Film.
One Way Pendulum is a 1965 British comedy film directed by Peter Yates and starring Eric Sykes and George Cole. It is an adaptation of the play by N. F. Simpson.
The Other People is a 1968 British film. The film appears to have never been released, and is considered a lost film. It was discovered at Paramount in 2017 and will be preserved.
Sandy the Reluctant Nudist, also known as The Reluctant Nudist and Sandy the Reluctant Nature Girl, is a nudist film from England which was produced by Michael Deeley. His girlfriend wrote the script and his mother did continuity.
John Peverall was a British film producer and director. He has served as a producer on films such as The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Deer Hunter and television programmes such as Arthur of the Britons and The Far Pavilions.
The White Rabbit is a 1967 British four-part TV series starring Kenneth More. It is based on the book by Bruce Marshall. It is the last of three mini series More starred in for BBC2 in succession.
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