David Lean
Sir David Lean,
KBE (
March 25,
1908 –
April 16,
1991) was a
British film director, best remembered for big-screen epics such as
Lawrence of Arabia,
The Bridge on the River Kwai, and
Doctor Zhivago . He was voted 9th best director of all time in the
BFI "Directors Top Directors" poll 2002.
He was born in
Croydon,
Surrey to Francis William le Blount Lean and the former Helena Tangye. His parents were
Quakers and he was a pupil at the Quaker-founded
Leighton Park School in
Reading.
Lean started at the bottom, as a
clapperboard assistant. By 1930 he was working as an editor on newsreels, including
Gaumont Pictures and
Movietone. His career in feature films began with
Escape Me Never in 1935.
He went on to edit
Gabriel Pascal's film productions of two
George Bernard Shaw plays,
Pygmalion (1938) and
Major Barbara (1941), and
Powell & Pressburger's Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) and
One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942).
His first work as a director was in partnership with
Noel Coward on
In Which We Serve (1942), and he went on to adapt several of Coward's plays into successful films. These included
This Happy Breed (1944),
Blithe Spirit (1945) and
Brief Encounter (1945). These were followed by two celebrated
Charles Dickens adaptations of
Great Expectations (1946) and
Oliver Twist (1948), as well as
The Sound Barrier (1952) a collaboration with the playwright
Terence Rattigan, and
Hobson's Choice (1954) a stylish comic update of
King Lear set in Victorian
Manchester, and based on the play by Harold Brighouse.
Summertime (1955), marked a new direction in for Lean. Filmed in colour, it was shot entirely on location in
Venice. U.S.-financed, the film starred
Katharine Hepburn as a middle-aged American woman who has a romance while on holiday in Venice.
In the following years, Lean went on to make the blockbusters for which he is best known:
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an
Academy Award, followed by another for
Lawrence of Arabia, (1962).
Doctor Zhivago (1965) was another major hit, but after the moderately successful
Ryan's Daughter in 1970, he did not direct another film until
A Passage to India (1984), which would be his last. He was knighted in 1984.
He was in the midst of planning an epic production of
Joseph Conrad's
Nostromo when he died from cancer, aged 83.
Marlon Brando,
Paul Scofield,
Anthony Quinn,
Christopher Lambert,
Isabella Rossellini, and
Dennis Quaid were among the ensemble cast set to star in the film.
Nostromo would eventually be made as a
BBC mini-series.
Lean was married six times, and divorced five — his last wife survived him: # Isabel Lean (1930 – 1936) (David's first cousin) — one son Peter#
Kay Walsh (1940 – 1949)#
Ann Todd (1949 – 1957)# Leila Matkar (1960 – 1978)# Sandra Hotz (1981 – 1984)# Sandra Cooke (1990 – 1991)
*
Peter O'Toole's performance as an eccentric filmmaker in 1980's
The Stunt Man was loosely based on Lean, who directed him in
Lawrence of Arabia.
*Lean was a long-term resident of
Limehouse,
East London. His home on
Narrow Street is still owned by his family.
*Often cited
John Ford as one of his favorite directors, and used that director's
The Searchers (1956) in particular as a reference point while shooting his epic films (e.g.
Lawrence and
Zhivago).
*A favorite director of
Steven Spielberg,
Martin Scorsese,
George Lucas, and innumerable others. Lucas has referenced his films (
Lawrence in particular) throughout his
Star Wars film series.
*Frequently attempted to work with
Marlon Brando, but was never able to. He offered Brando the title role in
Lawrence, as well as the role of Victor Komarovsky in
Doctor Zhivago (which went to
Rod Steiger), and was also planning for him to be in his production of
Nostromo which he had planned before his death.
In Which We Serve (1942)
This Happy Breed (1944)
Blithe Spirit (1945)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Great Expectations (1946)
Oliver Twist (1948)
The Passionate Friends (1949)
Madelein (1950)
The Sound Barrier (1952)
Hobson's Choice (1954)
Summertime (1955)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
A Passage to India (1984)
"I wouldn't take the advice of a lot of so-called critics on how to shoot a close-up of a teapot."
*
Kevin Brownlow,
David Lean, Faber & Faber, 1997.
*
*
David Lean @ Screen Online.org*
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database, Biography by Alain Silver*
Biography at British Film Institute
