In partnership with The Film Foundation, Turner Classic Movies is proud to bring you this exclusive monthly column by iconic film director and classic movie lover Martin Scorsese.
Ghandi (1982) (April 7 at 7:00am ET)
I recently took another look at Gandhi, Sir Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film about one of the most inspiring figures of the 20th century. At the time, it was treated as an event, an epic in the vein of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. It took many years to get a film about Gandhi made (at one point Lean was going to direct). When Attenborough came aboard, he cast a theatrically trained actor of half-Gujarati descent, Ben Kingsley, in the lead. The film was a box-office hit, a multiple-award winner and it justifiably made a star out of Sir Ben, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working on two pictures.
As it always happens when a film is so successful, there was a backlash: it was conventional and stodgy; it was partially subsidized by the Indian government; it presented a whitewashed portrait of Gandhi, etc. As time goes on, judgments about what’s conventional and what isn’t start to fade away, and you can see very clearly how timebound they are. Attenborough, who started as an actor in the ‘40s and very quickly became one of the most popular actors in British cinema, brought a rare level of emotional intelligence and articulation to the pictures he directed. And by the time he made Gandhi, he already had Young Winston and A Bridge Too Far to his credit, so he’d had experience with large-scale action and masses of people.
The level of craft in Gandhi seems extraordinary today, and so does its spiritual force. Does it “idealize” Gandhi? Probably—look closely enough at anyone and you’ll find their flaws. And if the film had gone into more detail about the human contradictions in Gandhi’s character, what would it have served? Attenborough and Kingsley and John Briley, who wrote the screenplay, wanted to focus on the qualities that inspired people when Gandhi was alive and that went on to inspire Martin Luther King and many, many others. At a certain point, you have to make choices, and the life of the film has to part ways with the life depicted. The question becomes, how much conviction do the filmmakers bring to translating those choices into cinema?
There are many examples of mediocre pictures that take officially sanctioned points of view and just serve them to the audience, and that’s it. Gandhi is very far from that type of cynicism. I could point to many extraordinary moments, but the scene that really struck me this last time and that’s haunted me ever since comes near the end of the picture. A Hindu man confesses to Gandhi that he has killed a Muslim child in anger and wonders how he can live with himself. “I have a way out,” says Gandhi, who instructs the man to find an orphan boy, adopt him…and raise him as a Muslim. Did it really happen that way? I don’t know. But I do know that the force of the scene cuts through hatred, particularly the kind of hatred expressed so freely right now, like a knife.
Gandhi
Brief Synopsis
The legendary Indian leader uses peaceful means to free his homeland from British rule.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Richard Attenborough
Director
Ben Kingsley
Candice Bergen
John Gielgud
Gareth Forwood
Raj Chaturvedi
Film Details
MPAA Rating
Genre
Drama
Biography
Historical
Period
Release Date
1982
Location
India
Technical Specs
Duration
3h 8m
Synopsis
Biographical epic on the life of Mohandas K Gandhi, a proponent of peaceful revolution who led his country's fight for independence and was subsequently assassinated.
Cast
Ben Kingsley
Candice Bergen
John Gielgud
Gareth Forwood
Raj Chaturvedi
Sudhanshu Mishra
Jalal Agha
Jane Myerson
Tarla Mehta
S S Thakur
Roshan Seth Obe
Stewart Harwood
Alyque Padamsee
Michael Hordern
John Savident
Lakshmi Shankar
Performer
Irpinder Puri
Prabhakar Patankar
Sunil Shende
Bernard Hill
Bani Sharad Joshi
Neena Gupta
Alok Nath
John Vine
Avpar Jhita
Karkirat Singh
Richard Griffiths
Ashit Desai
Performer
Daniel Day-lewis
Rohini Hattangady
Shreedhar Joshi
Rama Kant Jha
Vagish Kumar Singh
Caroline Hutchinson
Wilson George
Keith Drinkel
Saeed Jaffrey
Amrish Puri
Trevor Howard
Gerald Sim
Terrence Hardiman
John Ratzenberger
John Quentin
Rupert Frazer
Athol Fugard
Pankaj Kapoor
Charubala Chokshi
Michael Bryan
John Naylor
Ernest Clark
Sharad Kumar
Performer
Moti Makan
Tilak Raj
Ian Bannen
Gerard Norman
Bernard Horsfall
Roop Kumar Razdan
Jyuoti Sarup
James Snell
P Desai
Performer
Vijay Crishna
Sunila Pradham
Dean Gasper
Tom Alter
Bernard Hepton
Pankaj Mohan
Vijay Raghav Rao
Performer
Peter Harlowe
Raja Biswas
Norman Chancer
Marius Weyers
Avinash Dogra
Gulshan Kapoor
Richard Vernon
Richard Leech
Ian Charleson
Geoffrey Chater
Rahul Gupta
Christopher Good
Gunther Maria Halmer
Avis Bunnage
James Cossins
Monica Gupta
Stanley Lebor
David Sibley
Sultan Khan
Performer
Nigam Prakash
Om Puri
Vinay Apte
Colin Farrell
Winston Ntshona
Bhatawadekar Prakash
Jon Croft
David Markham
Pren Kapoor
Dilsher Singh
Supriya Pathak
Rovil Sinha
William Hoyland
Bob Barbenia
Hansu Mehta
Sanjeev Puri
Geraldine James
Sekhar Chatterjee
Ray Burdis
Suhas Palshikar
Manohar Pitale
Anthony Sagger
Graham Seed
K K Raina
Ken Hutchison
John Clements
Brian Oulton
Sudarshan Sehti
John Mills
Stanley Mcgeagh
Nigel Hawthorne
David Gant
Pratap Desai
John Boxer
Vivek Swaroop
Homi Daruvala
Daleep Tahil
Barry John
T K Ramakrishnan
Performer
Virenda Razdan
Vijay Kashyap
John Patrick
Ashish Khan
Performer
Sankalp Dubey
Sudheer Dalavi
Anang Desai
Subhash Gupta
Daniel Peacock
Edward Fox
Shane Rimmer
Dominic Guard
Shreeram Lagoo
Rajeshwar Nath
Peter Cartwright
Martin Sheen
Dina Nath
Jack Mckenzie
Harsh Nayyar
Mohan Agashe
Habib Tanveer
Gurcharan Singh
Aswani Kumar
Michael Godley
Richard Mayes
Crew
Rashid Abbasi
Unit Manager
Margaret Adams
Post-Production Assistant
Nissar Allana
On-Set Dresser
Chic Anstiss
Camera Operator
Bhanu Athaiya
Costumes
Richard Attenborough
Producer
Colonel Balachandra
Technical Advisor
Jonathan Bates
Sound Editor
Bhisham Bhasin
Assistant Director
Apurba Kishore Bir
Camera Operator
John Bloom
Editor
John Briley
Screenplay
Robin Browne
Photography
Roy Button
Assistant Director
Sharlene Catelier
Production Assistant
Eleanor Chaudhuri
Production Assistant
Terence A Clegg
Production Supervisor
Stuart Craig
Production Designer
Gerry Crampton
Stunt Coordinator
Alexander Degrunwald
Production Manager
Norman Dorme
Art Director
Rani Dube
Coproducer
Devi Dutt
Production Manager
Nic Ede
Wardrobe
George Fenton
Music
George Fenton
Original Music
Susie Figgis
Casting
Graham Ford
Location Manager
Paula Gillespie
Hair
Shama Habibullah
Production Manager
Aruna Harprassad
On-Set Dresser
Gerry Humphreys
Rerecording
Suresh Jindal
Associate Producer
Sina Kaul
Technical Advisor
Simon Kaye
Sound
Robert Laing
Art Director
Steve Lanning
Assistant Director
Gerry Levy
Unit Manager
John Matthew
Assistant Director
John Mollo
Costumes
Lorna Mueller
Researcher
Govind Nihalani
Camera Operator
Robin O'donoghue
Rerecording
Grania O'shannon
Unit Manager
Loretta Ordewer
Production Coordinator
U S Pani
Assistant Director
Alan Patillo
Associate Editor
R Puri
Consultant
Jill Quertier
On-Set Dresser
June Randall
Script Supervisor
Vijay Raghav Rao
Music Coordinator
John Richards
Sound
Chris Ridsdale
Editor
Manju Raj Saraogi
Costumes
Sudesh Sayal
Location Manager
Michael Seirton
Set Decorator
M Shahjehan
Assistant Director
Ravi Shankar
Music
Francis Silkstone
Music Coordinator
Tom Smith
Makeup
Michael Stanley-evans
Executive Producer
Rajiv Suri
Location Manager
Kamal Swaroop
Assistant Director
Ron Taylor
Director Of Photography
David Tomblin
Assistant Director
Charles Torbett
Property Master
Julian Wall
Assistant Director
Peter Waller
Assistant Director
David Watkins
Special Effects Supervisor
Billy Williams
Director Of Photography
Ram Yedekar
Art Director
Photo Collections
3 Photos
Gandhi - Academy Archives
Here are archive images from Gandhi (1982), courtesy of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Hosted Intro
Film Details
MPAA Rating
Genre
Drama
Biography
Historical
Period
Release Date
1982
Location
India
Technical Specs
Duration
3h 8m
Award Wins
Best Actor
1982
Ben Kingsley
Best Art Direction
1982
Stuart Craig
Best Cinematography
1982
Best Costume Design
1982
Best Director
1982
Richard Attenborough
Best Editing
1982
John Bloom
Best Original Screenplay
1982
Best Picture
1982
Award Nominations
Best Makeup
1982
Best Score
1982
Best Sound
1982
Articles
Scorsese Screens - April 2021
Scorsese Screens - April 2021
In partnership with The Film Foundation, Turner Classic Movies is proud to bring you this exclusive monthly column by iconic film director and classic movie lover Martin Scorsese.Ghandi (1982) (April 7 at 7:00am ET) I recently took another look at Gandhi, Sir Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film about one of the most inspiring figures of the 20th century. At the time, it was treated as an event, an epic in the vein of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. It took many years to get a film about Gandhi made (at one point Lean was going to direct). When Attenborough came aboard, he cast a theatrically trained actor of half-Gujarati descent, Ben Kingsley, in the lead. The film was a box-office hit, a multiple-award winner and it justifiably made a star out of Sir Ben, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working on two pictures. As it always happens when a film is so successful, there was a backlash: it was conventional and stodgy; it was partially subsidized by the Indian government; it presented a whitewashed portrait of Gandhi, etc. As time goes on, judgments about what’s conventional and what isn’t start to fade away, and you can see very clearly how timebound they are. Attenborough, who started as an actor in the ‘40s and very quickly became one of the most popular actors in British cinema, brought a rare level of emotional intelligence and articulation to the pictures he directed. And by the time he made Gandhi, he already had Young Winston and A Bridge Too Far to his credit, so he’d had experience with large-scale action and masses of people. The level of craft in Gandhi seems extraordinary today, and so does its spiritual force. Does it “idealize” Gandhi? Probably—look closely enough at anyone and you’ll find their flaws. And if the film had gone into more detail about the human contradictions in Gandhi’s character, what would it have served? Attenborough and Kingsley and John Briley, who wrote the screenplay, wanted to focus on the qualities that inspired people when Gandhi was alive and that went on to inspire Martin Luther King and many, many others. At a certain point, you have to make choices, and the life of the film has to part ways with the life depicted. The question becomes, how much conviction do the filmmakers bring to translating those choices into cinema? There are many examples of mediocre pictures that take officially sanctioned points of view and just serve them to the audience, and that’s it. Gandhi is very far from that type of cynicism. I could point to many extraordinary moments, but the scene that really struck me this last time and that’s haunted me ever since comes near the end of the picture. A Hindu man confesses to Gandhi that he has killed a Muslim child in anger and wonders how he can live with himself. “I have a way out,” says Gandhi, who instructs the man to find an orphan boy, adopt him…and raise him as a Muslim. Did it really happen that way? I don’t know. But I do know that the force of the scene cuts through hatred, particularly the kind of hatred expressed so freely right now, like a knife.
Gandhi
The dream proved extraordinarily difficult, becoming a quest of twenty years for Attenborough just to get the project off the ground as documented in his book In Search of Gandhi. Since this was a personal mission of Attenborough and not a studio-driven project, he was charged with the Herculean task of finding funding for the massive undertaking on his own. In a 1983 interview, he spoke of the subject: "I found it very difficult indeed to persuade those boys that the subject of Mahatma Gandhi had within it such drama, such emotion that it had the chance of being financially viable. In fact, I failed to persuade them. The money for Gandhi was put up, to a certain extent, by people who came into the industry to make that film." Among other sources, Attenborough came up with the necessary capital by selling his stake in the extremely successful play The Mousetrap and agreeing to direct two films for producer Joseph E. Levine - A Bridge Too Far (1977) and the inordinately creepy Magic (1978) starring Anthony Hopkins.
Once the monies were finally in place, earnest efforts to cast Gandhi began. Since Attenborough had been thinking about this project for 20 years, several actors had been considered over the years for various roles. Attenborough worked with a young Candice Bergen in the mid-60's and even back then asked her if she would play the part of photographer Margaret Bourke-White, which she would, fifteen years later. Martin Sheen's impressive performance in Apocalypse Now (1979) earned him his role in Gandhi, as did Ian Charleson's work in Chariots of Fire (1981). As for the lead role, three actors were in main contention: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Guinness, and John Hurt. All three actors eventually agreed the ability of a European actor to convincingly play an Indian was just too great - and then came Ben Kingsley. Attenborough knew of Kingsley from his London stage work and thought highly of his abilities although the only screen work that the actor had done up to that point was a minor television film. One aesthetic advantage with Kingsley was that he was of Indian descent; born Krishna Bhanji, he was actually from the same Indian state as Gandhi himself, Gujarat. But his screen test sealed the deal: Attenborough explains, "He was a miracle. He burst out on the screen with a credibility and with a magnetism that one could scarcely have contemplated. His eyes were mesmeric, and his physical frame - provided he lost some weight was right. He even wore his dhoti as though it was part of his everyday garb. It appeared to all of us that if there was one actor on the earth who could play the part of Gandhiji with conviction, it was Ben."
Kingsley utterly immersed himself in the role during his preparation, devouring practically every book on the leader and visiting all key locations associated with his movement. On a strict vegetarian diet, he lost seventeen pounds and dedicated himself to learning the spinning wheel just as Gandhi knew. Enlarged photos of the man adorned Kingsley's living space so that he could constantly observe the physical characteristics of his study. And in addition to ninety minutes of yoga a day, he slept on a cot in order to more fully relate to the lifestyle of Gandhi. The result was an incredibly inspired performance; cast and crew and later audiences were astounded at the accuracy of his portrayal, with some declaring him "Gandhi's ghost." In fact, the entire production team was very conscientious to treat the project with an extraordinarily high level of reverence and respect for the subject matter, never underestimating the critical devotion and love an entire country felt for the man. Attenborough made frequent visits to the site of his assassination, a memorial place at which he could pay appropriate acknowledgment. He worked very closely with public officials to ensure that all applicable parties were in support of character portrayals and the depictions of historical events. Cast and crew alike were careful to follow the local customs at all times, and a couple - Sheen and English actor Edward Fox--were so inspired by the experience that they ended up donating their salaries for the film to various charitable organizations in India.
The scale of Gandhi was enormous; when an open solicitation for crowd members was made for the funeral scene, an estimated 300,000 extras showed up. The scene, incidentally, was shot on the 33rd anniversary of the event. Mammoth crowds were present at every location, as eager spectators if nothing else. The film suffered a tragedy during one such shoot: a young boy was fatally crushed when the wall he was sitting atop to watch the filming collapsed. Thankfully, no other significant accidents occurred during the rest of the 126-day shooting schedule. The magnanimity of the project did not overpower the poignancy of the subject matter, however, with critics later drawing comparisons between Gandhi and David Lean films Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965) for, as Roger Ebert put it, the "ability to paint a strong human story on a very large canvas."
Despite the fact that no one wanted to finance the film for twenty years, distributors scrambled to secure rights for Gandhi once the completed feature was revealed in industry previews. Claiming it to be one of the most important films ever made, Columbia committed to do anything it took to be the distributor - including organizing the biggest worldwide opening schedule for a film ever at that time. Ravi Shankar immediately agreed to score music for the film - resulting in Indian session musicians coming to London to perform. Arriving in January, the studio had to be specially warmed, because their instruments-unused to the cold-were constricting, resulting in inaccurate pitches and notes. No one could dispute the quality of the film once released: critics and audiences alike were amazed and effectively overwhelmed. The New York Times pointed out that perhaps the greatest contribution was "that the film will bring Gandhi to the attention of a lot of people around the world for the first time, not as a saint but as a self-searching, sometimes fallible human being with a sense of humor as well as of history." Gandhi earned eleven nominations with eight of those wins at the Oscars®, including statuettes for Best Picture, Director, and Actor. Despite its many accolades, Gandhi succeeds in its greatest goal, that which India's first prime minister Pandit Nehru asked of Attenborough during a preproduction meeting in Delhi years before: "Whatever you do, do not deify him-that is what we have done in India-and he was too great a man to be deified."
Producer: Richard Attenborough, Rani Dube, Suresh Jindal, Michael Stanley-Evans
Director: Richard Attenborough
Screenplay: John Briley
Cinematography: Ronnie Taylor, Billy Williams
Film Editing: John Bloom
Art Direction: Norman Dorme, Ram Yedekar
Music: Ravi Shankar
Cast: Ben Kingsley (Mohandas Gandhi), Candice Bergen (Margaret Bourke-White), Edward Fox (Gen. Reginald Dyer), John Gielgud (Lord Irwin), Trevor Howard (Judge Broomfield), John Mills (Lord Chelmsford).
C-188m. Letterboxed.
by Eleanor Quin
Gandhi
If there was a singular personal embodiment of the history, the spirit, and struggles of India during her battle for independence from
Britain, it was inarguably Mahatma Gandhi. His never-failing commitment to his country's freedom through what he termed Satyagraha,
non-violent passive resistance, was worth more than anything to him - including his life, at the hands of a Hindu assassin. In death, he
transcended his mortal existence to become a powerfully inspirational symbol for the Indian people, who carried on with his mission for a
free India-something they would finally achieve in 1947. Fifteen years later, the dream to bring the story of Gandhi (1982) to
film was conceived when actor Richard Attenborough was implored to read a biography of the leader. Attenborough was immediately
captivated, but quickly realized such an undertaking would not be simple. Such a hallowed and revered historical figure set against the
backdrop of a country of millions would require not only a project of epic proportions but deft counterbalancing to achieve a poignant and
intimate portrait of a deeply spiritual individual.
The dream proved extraordinarily difficult, becoming a quest of twenty years for
Attenborough just to get the project off the ground as documented in his book In Search of Gandhi.
Since this was a personal mission of Attenborough and not a studio-driven project, he was charged with the Herculean task of finding
funding for the massive undertaking on his own. In a 1983 interview, he spoke of the subject: "I found it very difficult indeed to persuade
those boys that the subject of Mahatma Gandhi had within it such drama, such emotion that it had the chance of being financially viable.
In fact, I failed to persuade them. The money for Gandhi was put up, to a certain extent, by people who came into the industry
to make that film." Among other sources, Attenborough came up with the necessary capital by selling his stake in the extremely
successful play The Mousetrap and agreeing to direct two films for producer Joseph E. Levine - A Bridge Too Far (1977)
and the inordinately creepy Magic (1978) starring Anthony Hopkins.
Once the monies were finally in place, earnest efforts to cast Gandhi began. Since Attenborough had been thinking about this
project for 20 years, several actors had been considered over the years for various roles. Attenborough worked with a young Candice
Bergen in the mid-60's and even back then asked her if she would play the part of photographer Margaret Bourke-White, which she would,
fifteen years later. Martin Sheen's impressive performance in Apocalypse Now (1979) earned him his role in Gandhi, as
did Ian Charleson's work in Chariots of Fire (1981). As for the lead role, three actors were in main contention: Anthony Hopkins,
Alec Guinness, and John Hurt. All three actors eventually agreed the ability of a European actor to convincingly play an Indian was just
too great - and then came Ben Kingsley. Attenborough knew of Kingsley from his London stage work and thought highly of his abilities
although the only screen work that the actor had done up to that point was a minor television film. One aesthetic advantage with Kingsley
was that he was of Indian descent; born Krishna Bhanji, he was actually from the same Indian state as Gandhi himself, Gujarat. But his
screen test sealed the deal: Attenborough explains, "He was a miracle. He burst out on the screen with a credibility and with a
magnetism that one could scarcely have contemplated. His eyes were mesmeric, and his physical frame - provided he lost some weight
was right. He even wore his dhoti as though it was part of his everyday garb. It appeared to all of us that if there was one actor on the
earth who could play the part of Gandhiji with conviction, it was Ben."
Kingsley utterly immersed himself in the role during his preparation, devouring practically every book on the leader and visiting all key
locations associated with his movement. On a strict vegetarian diet, he lost seventeen pounds and dedicated himself to learning the
spinning wheel just as Gandhi knew. Enlarged photos of the man adorned Kingsley's living space so that he could constantly observe the
physical characteristics of his study. And in addition to ninety minutes of yoga a day, he slept on a cot in order to more fully relate to the
lifestyle of Gandhi. The result was an incredibly inspired performance; cast and crew and later audiences were astounded at the accuracy
of his portrayal, with some declaring him "Gandhi's ghost." In fact, the entire production team was very conscientious to treat the project
with an extraordinarily high level of reverence and respect for the subject matter, never underestimating the critical devotion and love an
entire country felt for the man. Attenborough made frequent visits to the site of his assassination, a memorial place at which he could
pay appropriate acknowledgment. He worked very closely with public officials to ensure that all applicable parties were in support of
character portrayals and the depictions of historical events. Cast and crew alike were careful to follow the local customs at all times, and
a couple - Sheen and English actor Edward Fox--were so inspired by the experience that they ended up donating their salaries for the film
to various charitable organizations in India.
The scale of Gandhi was enormous; when an open solicitation for crowd members was made for the funeral scene, an estimated
300,000 extras showed up. The scene, incidentally, was shot on the 33rd anniversary of the event. Mammoth crowds were present at
every location, as eager spectators if nothing else. The film suffered a tragedy during one such shoot: a young boy was fatally crushed
when the wall he was sitting atop to watch the filming collapsed. Thankfully, no other significant accidents occurred during the rest of the
126-day shooting schedule. The magnanimity of the project did not overpower the poignancy of the subject matter, however, with critics
later drawing comparisons between Gandhi and David Lean films Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago
(1965) for, as Roger Ebert put it, the "ability to paint a strong human story on a very large canvas."
Despite the fact that no one wanted to finance the film for twenty years, distributors scrambled to secure rights for Gandhi once
the completed feature was revealed in industry previews. Claiming it to be one of the most important films ever made, Columbia
committed to do anything it took to be the distributor - including organizing the biggest worldwide opening schedule for a film ever at that
time. Ravi Shankar immediately agreed to score music for the film - resulting in Indian session musicians coming to London to perform.
Arriving in January, the studio had to be specially warmed, because their instruments-unused to the cold-were constricting, resulting in
inaccurate pitches and notes. No one could dispute the quality of the film once released: critics and audiences alike were amazed and
effectively overwhelmed. The New York Times pointed out that perhaps the greatest contribution was "that the film will bring
Gandhi to the attention of a lot of people around the world for the first time, not as a saint but as a self-searching, sometimes fallible
human being with a sense of humor as well as of history." Gandhi earned eleven nominations with eight of those wins at the
Oscars®, including statuettes for Best Picture, Director, and Actor. Despite its many accolades, Gandhi succeeds in its
greatest goal, that which India's first prime minister Pandit Nehru asked of Attenborough during a preproduction meeting in Delhi years
before: "Whatever you do, do not deify him-that is what we have done in India-and he was too great a man to be deified."
Producer: Richard Attenborough, Rani Dube, Suresh Jindal, Michael Stanley-Evans
Director: Richard Attenborough
Screenplay: John Briley
Cinematography: Ronnie Taylor, Billy Williams
Film Editing: John Bloom
Art Direction: Norman Dorme, Ram Yedekar
Music: Ravi Shankar
Cast: Ben Kingsley (Mohandas Gandhi), Candice Bergen (Margaret Bourke-White), Edward Fox (Gen. Reginald Dyer), John Gielgud (Lord
Irwin), Trevor Howard (Judge Broomfield), John Mills (Lord Chelmsford).
C-188m. Letterboxed.
by Eleanor Quin
Sir John Mills (1908-2005)
Born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills in Norfolk, England on February 22, 1908. His father was a headmaster of a village school in Suffolk, where Mills was raised. After secondary school, he worked as a clerk in a corn merchant's office while acting in amateur dramatic societies. Ever ambitious, he relocated to London in 1928 to find more work as an actor.
He took tap-dancing lessons and made his stage debut as a chorus boy in The Five O'Clock Girl at the London Hippodrome in 1929. Later that year, he joined an acting troupe that toured India and the Far East with a repertory of modern plays, musical comedies and Shakespeare. It was during this tour when he scored his big break - he was spotted by Noel Coward while in Singapore and promptly taken under the playwright's wing when he returned to London in 1931.
On his return, he starred on the West End (London's Broadway), in Coward's Cavalcade and earned the lead in a production of Charley's Aunt. His song and dance talents came in handy for his film debut, an early British musical-comedy The Midshipmaid (1932). His biggest hits over the next few years would all fall into the genre of light comic-musicals: Britannia of Billingsgate (1933), Royal Cavalcade (1935), and Four Dark Hours(1937). He scored a his first big part as Robert Donat's student in the MGM backed production Mills went on to play Robert Donat's Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). He developed some more heft to his acting credentials that same year when he made his debut at the celebrated Old Vic Theatre as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He served briefly in the Navy, 1940-41, during World War II before receiving a medical discharge. When Mills returned to the screen, he began a great turn as the atypical sturdy, dignified Englishman ("English without tears" went the popular phrase of the day). He starred as a stalwart lead in a amazing string of hit films: In Which We Serve (1942), We Dive at Dawn (1943), This Happy Breed (1944), The Way to the Stars (1945), and Waterloo Road (1945). Although Mills was ever dependable, they did not show his breakout talents until he starred as Pip in David Lean's gorgeous adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1946). As the young orphan who morphs into a man of wealth and stature, Mills showed the depth as an actor by offering a finely modulated performance.
By the late '40s, Mills was a bona fide star of British films, and over the next decade the strong roles kept coming: as the ill-fated Robert Falcon Scott in Scott of the Antarctic (1948); Bassett, the handy man who tries to help a troubled child (the brilliant John Howard Davies) of greedy, neglectful parents in the superb domestic drama The Rocking Horse Winner (1950); an overprotective father who gets trapped in a murder yarn in Mr. Denning Drives North (1952); a fine Willie Mossop in David Lean's Hobson's Choice (1954); an impressive "against-type" performance as a Russian peasant in War and Peace (1956); a sympathetic police inspector coaxing the trust of a juvenile (his daughter Hayley) who knows the facts of a murder case in the underappreciated Tiger Bay (1959); a rowdy Australian sheep shearer in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (also 1959); and arguably his finest performance - a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for a hard-as-nails army colonel who fears the loss of control over his regiment in Tunes of Glory (1960).
The mid-60s saw an isolated effort as a film director: Gypsy Girl (which starred his other daughter Juliet - who would later find fame on US television in Nanny and the Professor (1970-72); and showed the development of Mills into a charming character actor: the working-class patriarch in the modest comedy The Family Way (starring Hayley as his daughter); and a terrific comic bit as a murderous Lord who tries to kill off his kin for the family inheritance in Bryan Forbes The Wrong Box (all 1966).
By the '70s, his film work slowed considerably, but he was always worth watching: an Oscar winning performance as a mute villager in David Lean¿s study of the Irish troubles Ryan's Daughter (1970); as the influential General Herbert Kitchener Young Winston (1972); and as a driven oil driller in Oklahoma Crude (1973). With the exception of a small role in Sir Richard Attenborough's Ghandi (1982 - where he was credited as Sir John Mills after his knighthood in 1976), and a regrettable cameo in the deplorable Madonna comedy Who's That Girl (1987).
Very little was seen of Mills until recent years, where the most memorable of his appearances included: Old Norway in Hamlet (1996); as the stern chairman opposite Rowan Atkinson in the hit comedy Bean (1997); and - in a daring final role for his proud career - a nonagenarian partygoing cocaine user in Stephen Fry's bawdy social satire Bright Young Things (2003)! Mills is survived by his wife of 64 years, the novelist and playwright Mary Hayley Bell; his daughters, Juliet and Hayley; son, John; and several grandchildren.
by Michael T. Toole
Sir John Mills (1908-2005)
He was arguably the most refined, and versatile of all English film stars in the history of British cinema.
Sir John Mills, the Oscar®-winning actor whose film career spanned over 70 years, died on April 23 of natural causes in London. He was 97.
Born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills in Norfolk, England on February 22, 1908. His father was a headmaster of a village school in Suffolk, where Mills was raised.
After secondary school, he worked as a clerk in a corn merchant's office while acting in amateur dramatic societies. Ever ambitious, he relocated to London in
1928 to find more work as an actor.
He took tap-dancing lessons and made his stage debut as a chorus boy in The Five O'Clock Girl at the
London Hippodrome in 1929. Later that year, he
joined an acting troupe that toured India and the Far East with a repertory of modern plays, musical comedies and Shakespeare. It was during this tour when he scored his big break - he was spotted by Noel Coward while in Singapore and promptly taken under the playwright's wing when he returned to London in 1931.
On his return, he starred on the West End (London's Broadway), in Coward's Cavalcade and earned the lead in a production of Charley's Aunt. His song and dance talents came in handy for his film debut, an early British musical-comedy The Midshipmaid (1932). His biggest hits over the next few years would all fall into the genre of light
comic-musicals: Britannia of Billingsgate (1933), Royal Cavalcade (1935), and Four Dark Hours(1937). He scored a his first big part as Robert Donat's student in the MGM backed production Mills went on to play Robert Donat's Goodbye, Mr.
Chips (1939). He developed some more heft to his acting credentials that same year when he made his debut at the celebrated Old Vic Theatre as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He served briefly in the Navy, 1940-41, during World War II before receiving a medical discharge. When Mills returned to the screen, he began a great turn as the atypical sturdy, dignified Englishman ("English without tears" went the popular phrase of the day).
He starred as a stalwart lead in a amazing string of hit films: In Which We Serve (1942), We Dive at Dawn (1943), This Happy Breed (1944), The Way to the Stars (1945), and Waterloo Road (1945). Although Mills was ever dependable, they did not show his breakout talents until he starred as Pip in David Lean's gorgeous adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1946). As the young orphan who morphs into a man of wealth and stature, Mills showed the depth as an actor by offering a finely modulated performance.
By the late '40s, Mills was a bona fide star of British films, and over the next decade the strong roles kept coming: as the ill-fated Robert Falcon Scott in Scott of the Antarctic (1948); Bassett, the handy man who tries to help a troubled child (the brilliant John Howard Davies) of greedy, neglectful parents in the superb domestic drama The Rocking Horse Winner (1950); an overprotective father who gets trapped in a murder yarn in Mr.
Denning Drives North (1952); a fine Willie Mossop in David Lean's Hobson's Choice (1954); an impressive "against-type" performance as a Russian peasant in War and Peace (1956); a sympathetic police inspector coaxing the trust of a juvenile (his daughter Hayley) who knows the facts of a murder case in the underappreciated Tiger Bay (1959); a rowdy Australian sheep shearer in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (also 1959); and arguably his finest performance - a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for a hard-as-nails army colonel who fears the loss of control over his regiment in Tunes of Glory (1960).
The mid-60s saw an isolated effort as a film
director: Gypsy Girl (which starred his other daughter Juliet - who would later find fame on US television in Nanny and the Professor (1970-72); and showed the development of Mills into a charming character actor: the working-class patriarch in the modest comedy The Family Way (starring Hayley as his daughter); and a terrific comic bit as a murderous Lord who tries to kill off his kin for the family inheritance in Bryan Forbes The Wrong Box (all 1966).
By the '70s, his film work slowed considerably, but he was always worth watching: an Oscar winning performance as a mute villager in David Lean¿s study of the Irish troubles Ryan's Daughter (1970); as the influential General Herbert Kitchener Young Winston (1972); and as a driven oil driller in Oklahoma Crude (1973). With the exception of a small role in Sir Richard Attenborough's Ghandi
(1982 - where he was credited as Sir John Mills after his knighthood in 1976), and a regrettable cameo in the deplorable Madonna comedy Who's That Girl
(1987).
Very little was seen of Mills until recent years, where the most memorable of his appearances included:
Old Norway in Hamlet (1996); as the stern chairman opposite Rowan Atkinson in the hit comedy Bean (1997); and - in a daring final role for his proud career - a nonagenarian partygoing cocaine user in Stephen Fry's bawdy social satire Bright Young Things (2003)! Mills is survived by his wife of 64 years, the novelist and playwright Mary Hayley Bell; his daughters, Juliet and Hayley; son, John; and several grandchildren.
by Michael T. Toole
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Voted Best Actor (Kingsley) by the 1982 Los Angeles Film Critics.
Voted Best Picture and Best Actor (Kingsley) by the 1982 National Board of Review.
Voted Best Picture and Best Actor (Kingsley) by the 1982 New York Film Critics Circle.
Voted One of the the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1982 New York Times Film Critics.
Released in United States November 1982
Released in United States Winter December 1, 1982
Re-released in United States on Video February 13, 1996
Released in USA on video.
Released in United States November 1982
Released in United States Winter December 1, 1982
Re-released in United States on Video February 13, 1996
The Country of India
