Lewis Gilbert


Lewis Gilbert was a British film director, producer and screenwriter, who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as Reach for the Sky, Sink the Bismarck!, Alfie, Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, as well as three James Bond films: You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.

Early life

Lewis Gilbert was born in Hackney, London, to a second-generation family of music hall performers, and spent his early years travelling with his parents, Ada, who was of Jewish descent, and George Gilbert, and watching the shows from the wings. He first performed on stage at the age of five, when asked to drive a trick car around the stage. This pleased the audience, so this became the finale of his parents' act. When travelling on trains, his parents frequently hid him in the luggage rack, to avoid paying a fare for him. His father contracted tuberculosis when he was a young man. He died aged 34, when Gilbert was seven.
As a child actor in films in the 1920s and 1930s, he was the breadwinner for his family, his mother was a film extra, and he had an erratic formal education. In 1933, at the age of 13, he had a role in Victor Hanbury and John Stafford's Dick Turpin, and at age 17 a small uncredited role in The Divorce of Lady X opposite Laurence Olivier. Alexander Korda offered to send him to RADA, but Gilbert chose to study direction instead, assisting Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn.
When the Second World War started, he joined the Royal Air Force's film unit, where he worked on various documentary films. He was eventually seconded to the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces, where his commanding officer was William Keighley, an American film director, who allowed Gilbert to take on much of his film-making work.

Directorial career

After the war, he continued to write and direct documentary shorts for Gaumont British, before entering low budget feature film production. Gilbert made his name as a director in the 1950s and 1960s with a series of successful films, often working as the film's writer and producer as well. These films were often based on true stories from the Second World War. Examples include Reach for the Sky , Carve Her Name with Pride and Sink the Bismarck!.

''Alfie''

Gilbert directed Alfie starring Michael Caine. Gilbert's wife Hylda discovered the play by Bill Naughton when she visited the hair salon and sat next to an actress who was in a production. Upon seeing the play, Hylda urged Gilbert to make it into a film. Gilbert used the technique of having the lead character speak directly to the viewer, a technique he later also used in Shirley Valentine. Gilbert said Alfie was only made because the low budget was "the sort of money Paramount executives normally spend on cigar bills". The film won the Jury Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for five Academy Awards including best picture. Gilbert was also nominated for a Golden Globe for best director.
In 1967, Gilbert was chosen to direct Lionel Bart's musical of Oliver! but already contracted to another project had to pull out and recommended Carol Reed who took over. "It was the lowest point in my life," said Gilbert. "I'd developed Oliver! with Lionel Bart. I had to do The Adventurers instead... While doing this film, I signed to do The Godfather. Because of their financial problems, Paramount could only find $2m to make it. I said it needed $7m". So instead Gilbert made Friends.

James Bond

Although known for character dramas, Gilbert directed three of the James Bond films. After some reluctance, he was persuaded by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli to direct You Only Live Twice. Gilbert returned to the series in the 1970s to make The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.

Later career

In the 1980s he returned to more small-scale dramas with film versions of Willy Russell's plays Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. Gilbert also directed the film Stepping Out.
Gilbert was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry. In 2001, Gilbert was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute, the highest accolade in the British film industry.
In June 2010 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. In it he said that his 1970 film The Adventurers was a disaster, and that he should never have made it. On working with Orson Welles on Ferry to Hong Kong, he said that it was: "dreadful, it was my nightmare film. It was a dreadful film, and everything was wrong with it; principally him ." He also said that his biggest mistake was failing to direct the film version of the musical Oliver!. Its composer Lionel Bart had assured Gilbert that nobody else would do the film, but Gilbert was contractually committed to Paramount to make a film, which caused him to withdraw from the project.

Personal life

He was married to Hylda Tafler for 53 years, until her death in June 2005. They had a son together, Stephen. Hylda also had a son John Gilbert from a previous relationship.
All My Flashbacks: The Autobiography of Lewis Gilbert Sixty Years a Film Director was published by Reynolds & Hearn in 2010.
He died at home in Monaco on 23 February 2018, aged 97.

Filmography

YearFilmDirectorProducerScreenwriterNotes
1945The Ten Year Plandocumentary about the building of pre-fabricated houses.
1946Arctic HarvestDocumentary about cod-fishing in the Arctic and the production of cod liver oil.
1947World Economic Geography: Fishing Grounds of the Worldalso known as Sailors Do Care, documentary about the British and international fishing industry.
1948The Little Ballerina
1949Under One RoofUN sponsored documentary about the students from different countries who attend Loughborough Engineering College.
1949Marry Me!
1950Once a Sinner
1951There Is Another Sun
1951Scarlet Thread
1952Emergency Call
1952Time Gentlemen, Please!
1953Cosh Boy
1953Johnny on the Run
1953Albert R.N.
1954The Good Die Young
1954The Sea Shall Not Have Them
1955Cast a Dark Shadow
1956Reach for the Sky
1957The Admirable Crichton
1958Carve Her Name with Pride
1958A Cry from the Streets
1959Ferry to Hong Kong
1960Light Up the Sky!
1960Sink the Bismarck!
1961The Greengage Summer
1962H.M.S. Defiant
1964The 7th Dawn
1966AlfieJury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Remake done in 2004 starring Jude Law.
1967You Only Live Twice
1970The Adventurers
1971Friends
1974Paul and Michelle
1975Operation Daybreak
1976Seven Nights in Japan
1977The Spy Who Loved Me
1979Moonraker
1983Educating Rita
1985Not Quite Paradise
1989Shirley Valentine
1991Stepping Out
1995Haunted
2002Before You Go