John SchlesingerBirth Place: London, England, UK Date of Birth: February 16, 1926 Heritage: British Famous for: Director of 'Midnight Cowboy' (1969) Contact John Schlesinger | 
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Midnight Cowboy Background: “Making a film is like going down a mine; once you've started you bid a metaphorical goodbye to the daylight and the outside world for the duration.” John Schlesinger A British film director who began his career in the entertainment industry as an actor before well-establishing himself as a noted filmmaker, John Schlesinger, born 1926, died 2003, started directing art documentary films for television and first gained attention for his work in 1961's “Terminus,” which won him a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a BAFTA Award. After making his feature directorial debut in the Golden Berlin Bear winner “A Kind of Loving” (1962), which was well-received by both critics and viewers, he received a New York Film Critics Circle Award and a National Board of Review Award, as well as his first Oscar nomination for “Darling” (1965). It was his next film, “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman that earned Schlesinger a place in cinema history. The movie became a massive box office hit and a contemporary classic. Thanks to his bravura effort, the director won an Academy Award and a number of other awards, such as a Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, a BAFTA Film Award, a Directors Guild of America Award, a David di Donatello Award and a Berlin International Film Festival Award. He continued to enjoy critical victory with “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” (1971, netted a BAFTA Award, a David di Donatello Award and an Oscar nomination), “The Day of the Locust” (1975), “Marathon Man” (1976) and “Yanks” (1979, won a National Board of Review Award, a David di Donatello Award and a Evening Standard British Film Award). His more recent projects include the box office flop “Honky Tonk Freeway” (1981), “The Believers” (1987), “Pacific Heights” (1990), “The Innocent” (1993), “Cold Comfort Farm” (1995, TV), “Eye for an Eye” (1996) and The Tale of Sweeney Todd” (1998, TV). His final directorial effort, “The Next Best Thing” (2000), won him a Razzie nomination. Schlesinger also worked for stage and opera. Personally speaking, Schlesinger was openly homosexual. His life partner, Michael Childers, survived him at his death in 2003. He also was once romantically involved with Noel Davis. In 1970, Schlesinger was named a Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
Childhood and Family: Son of a pediatrician, John Richard Schlesinger was born on February 16, 1926, in London, England. He grew up in a Jewish family in Hampstead and was the eldest of five children. He had a brother, Roger, and three sisters, Hilary (twin of Roger), Wendy and Susan, who committed suicide in 1963 at age 30. John was an excellent pianist as a child, while his father, Bernard Schlesinger, played the cello and his mother, Winifred Schlesinger, played the violin. An admirer of the Egyptian Hall magic shows, he later became a magician and performed his tricks at Christmas and on birthdays. John received his first camera, a Box Brownie, when he was nine years old. It was during that same period that his family sent him away to attend school. He joined the school's film society and by age 11 he had created his first film. He also tried his hand in acting at the age of 13 or 14. Other interests included photography and for a time he paid bills by photographing actors and typecasting them. During WW II, John served as an architectural draftsman with the Royal Engineers. He made an amateur film called “Horror” and frequently entertained troops with magic. After leaving the army in 1947, John enrolled at the Balliol College in Oxford where he majored in English Literature. He also joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society. On July 25, 2003, John died at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California, after being taken off life support by his life partner, photographer Michael Childers. He was 77. John had experienced a quadruple heart bypass in 1998 and a stroke in 2000. At the time of his death, he was survived by Childers and his siblings Roger and Hilary.
Career: “I wasn't a very good actor. I wouldn't have cast myself if I'd come to see myself.” John Schlesinger (on his acting days) After graduating from Balliol College, John Schlesinger continued to pursue a career in acting and spent 1952 to 1956 working in Australia, England and New Zealand. During that time, he was seen in five feature films, including “Singlehanded” (1953), “The Divided Heart” (1954) and “The Battle of the River Plate” (1956), and appeared in almost 20 plays with various repertory companies. He also performed on TV and radio. A meeting with director/producer Roy Boulting turned his attention to photography and filmmaking and led to the making of the 1956 documentary film “Sunday in the Park,” a project with theatrical agent Basil Appleby. Following this, he made a series of documentaries for the BBC. Schlesinger served as a second unit director in episodes of the British TV series “Danger Man” from 1960 to 1961, and was then hired to make an industrial documentary of daily life in the Waterloo Station in London. The touching outcome, “Terminus” (1961), which marked Schlesinger's theatrical documentary debut, brought the director a Venice Festival Gold Lion and a BAFTA Film for Best Short Film. Thanks partly to the notice the film gained, Schlesinger was approached by producer Joseph Janni who offered him his first shot at a motion picture with “Kind of Loving” (1962). Starring Alan Bates, the wonderful dramatic romance won the hearths of audiences and critics alike and established Schlesinger as an important young British filmmaker. For his effort, he was handed a Berlin International Film Festival Golden Berlin Bear. Schlesinger's second film, “Billy Liar” (1963), was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He ventured to very different terrain with “Darling” (1965), a satire of “swinging London” that served as the springboard of Julie Christie's international career after she won a Best Actress Oscar. For his direction, Schlesinger was handed a New York Film Critics Circle, a National Board of Review and an Academy Award nomination. He reunited with Christie and Alan Bates for the 1967 Oscar nominee “Far from the Madding Crowd,” based on Thomas Hardy's best selling novel. However, the film was not a hit with critics or at the box office at the time. Two years later, Schlesinger bounced back and gained the biggest reviews of his career with the 1969 unique drama “Midnight Cowboy,” a movie about a naive hustler (played by John Voight) and his sallow friend (played by Dustin Hoffman) attempting to survive on the streets of New York City. The film won three Oscars, including Best Director for Schlesinger, and a number of other awards and helped launch his Hollywood career as a director. In addition to the Oscar, Schlesinger also won a Kansas City Film Critics Circle and a BAFTA Film award for Best Director, a Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, a David di Donatello and an Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for Best Director - Foreign Film, a Bodil for Best Non-European Film and a Berlin International Film Festival OCIC. The highly acclaimed “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” was Schlesinger's comeback in 1971. Starring Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson as a well-to-do Jewish family doctor and a divorced working woman, the drama earned both actors their Oscar nominations as well as the director his next nomination. Schlesinger also nabbed a BAFTA for Best Direction and a David di Donatello for Best Director - Foreign Film. He then contributed “The Longest,” “Visions of Eight” and directed the Donald Sutherland vehicle “The Day of the Locust” in 1975 and “Marathon Man,” scripted by William Goldman from his novel, in 1976. The gifted filmmaker went on to score another critical accomplishment with the film “Yanks” (1979), starring Richard Gere. For his work, he netted a National Board of Review for Best Director, a David di Donatello and a Evening Standard British Film. By 1981, Schlesinger had to deal with a box office disappointment with his comedy “Honky Tonk Freeway.” Budgeted at $24 million, it only grossed a total of $2 million. Despite the flop, he continued to work steadily as a director in movies and TV but never again achieved the victories he had for over a decade beginning in the mid-60s. His later projects included “An Englishman Abroad” (1983, TV), the Martin Sheen/Helen Shaver starring vehicle “The Believers” (1987), “Madame Sousatzka” (1988, starred Shirley MacLaine), “Pacific Heights” (1990), “A Question of Attribution” (1992, TV) and “The Innocent” (1993), an adaptation of Ian McEwan's Cold War psychological thriller. He also helmed the British television movie “Cold Comfort Farm” (1995), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1996, the insignificant revenge thriller “Eye for an Eye” (1996), starring Sally Field, Ed Harris and Kiefer Sutherland, and the TV adaptation of “The Tale of Sweeney Todd” (1998), which cast Ben Kingsley as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Before his death, Schlesinger directed pop superstar Madonna and Rupert Everett in his last effort, “The Next Best Thing” (2000). The comedy brought him a Razzie nomination for Worst Director. Aside from film and television, Schlesinger also directed for stage and opera. He helmed “Timon of Athens” (1964) for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the musical “I and Albert” (1972) at London's Piccadilly Theater. He also lent his directing talents for Offenbach’s opera, “Les Contes d'Hoffmann” at London's Royal Opera House in 1980 and Verdi's opera, “Un Ballo in Maschera,” at the Salzburg Festival in July 1989. Schlesinger served as associate director of London's Royal National Theatre from 1973 until his death in 2003.
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