Jack Clayton

Director

About

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Birth Place

Brighton, England, GB

Born

March 01, 1921

Died

February 25, 1995

Biography

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Solid, professional craftsman who from 1935 worked his way up from third assistant director to editor with Alexander Korda's London Films before directing the medium-length film, "The Bespoke Overcoat" (1955), which won a short-subject Oscar and a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Clayton then served as producer on several routine pictures before directing his first feature, the powerfu...

Filmography

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The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

The Great Gatsby (1974)

Our Mother's House (1967)

The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

The Innocents (1961)

Photos & Videos

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Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I'll Make You Like Me

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) The Smell Of Paint

Family & Companions

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Christine Norden

Wife

Actor. Married on December 13, 1947; divorced in 1953.

Katherine Kath

Wife

Divorced.

Haya Harareet

Wife

Actor. Survived him.

Biography

Solid, professional craftsman who from 1935 worked his way up from third assistant director to editor with Alexander Korda's London Films before directing the medium-length film, "The Bespoke Overcoat" (1955), which won a short-subject Oscar and a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Clayton then served as producer on several routine pictures before directing his first feature, the powerful, class-conscious drama, "Room at the Top" (1958), which inaugurated a new kind of kitchen-sink realism and frank sensuality in the British cinema.

Working once again in black and white with cinematographer Freddie Francis, Clayton followed with "The Innocents" (1961), the chilling, atmospheric retelling of Henry James' classic ghost story, "The Turn of the Screw" which perfectly exemplified the recurring theme in the majority of his films--"Room," "The Great Gatsby" (1974), "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (1983)--the clash betweeen innocence and corruption often involving the loss of a child's innocence and the power of the supernatural.

After a four-year absence from film, Clayton returned in 1987 to direct the critically acclaimed, heartbreakingly bleak, "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne," once again demonstrating his skill with actors and eliciting sensitive performances from Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins.

Filmography

Director (Feature Film)

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

The Great Gatsby (1974)

Our Mother's House (1967)

The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

The Innocents (1961)

Room at the Top (1959)

Producer (Feature Film)

Our Mother's House (1967)

The Innocents (1961)

The Whole Truth (1958)

Sailor Beware! (1956)

I Am a Camera (1955)

Associate Producer

Beat the Devil (1954)

Associate Producer

The Good Die Young (1954)

Associate Producer

Moulin Rouge (1953)

Associate Producer

Flesh and Blood (1951)

Associate Producer

The Queen of Spades (1948)

Associate Producer

Film Production - Main (Feature Film)

The Story of Esther Costello (1957)

In charge of prod

An Ideal Husband (1947)

Production Manager

Production Companies (Feature Film)

The Innocents (1961)

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

Castaway (1986)

Director (Special)

Memento Mori (1992)

Writer (Special)

Memento Mori (1992)

Special Thanks (Special)

Memento Mori (1992)

Director (Short)

The Bespoke Overcoat (1955)

Producer (Short)

The Bespoke Overcoat (1955)

Life Events

1935

Joined Alexander Korda's London Films as third assistant director

1936

Promoted to assistant director, then editor, London Films

1944

Short film directing and writing debut, "Naples is a Battlefield" (Clayton present at liberation of Naples; film released by Ministry of Information)

1947

First film as production manager, "An Ideal Husband"

1948

First film as associate producer, "Queen of Spades"

1955

Medium-length directing debut, "The Bespoke Overcoat" (also produced)

1956

First feature film as producer, "Sailor Beware/Panic in the Parlor"

1959

Feature film directing debut, "Room at the Top"

1961

Enjoyed a success with "The Innocents", adapted from Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw"

1974

Helmed the lavish if somewhat staid remake of "The Great Gatsby"

1983

Directed the film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's film "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

1987

Helmed the romance "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne"

Videos

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I'll Make You Like Me Artist Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) has rescued streetwalker Marie (Collette Marchand) from a Paris cop, after which she invites herself home with him, beginning a key relationship, in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) The Smell Of Paint Moderately frustrated painter Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) meets colleagues Anquetin, Seurat and Gauzi (Jean Landler, Christopher Lee, Robert Le Fort) at a Paris cafe, then his enthusiastic semi-agent Maurice (Lee Montague), in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I Can Drink Cognac Already several minutes into director John Huston’s opening, at club Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1890, our first look at Jose Ferrer as painter Toulouse-Lautrec, visited by a waitress (Jill Bennett), his friend Maurice (Lee Montague) and warring dancers Katherine Kath and Muriel Smith in Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Room At The Top (1959) -- (Movie Clip) You Can Fix Just About Anything Father-in-law Brown (Donald Wolfit) offers to set up accountant Joe (Laurence Harvey) in business in return for staying married, but leaving his daughter to herself, in Room at the Top, 1959.

Room At The Top (1959) -- (Movie Clip) Opening, My Name Is Lampton Handsome Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) arrives for his first day of work at the borough treasurer's office, in the opening sequence from director Jack Clayton's A Room at the Top, 1959, shot largely on location in West Yorkshire.

Room At The Top (1959) -- (Movie Clip) Erotic Vice Among The Working Class New-in-town Joe (Laurence Harvey) admits to aristocratic Susan (Heather Sears) that he's joined the local theater group mainly to pursue her, then gets in trouble working with Alice (Simone Signoret) in rehearsal, Anthony Newlands their director, in director Jack Clayton's Room At The Top, 1959.

Room At The Top (1959) -- (Movie Clip) This Is A Small Town City supervisor Hoylake (Raymond Huntley) has a piece of counsel for up-and-coming clerk Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), regarding making his way in local society, in Room at the Top, 1959, from the novel by John Braine.

Room At The Top (1959) -- (Movie Clip) You Look About 18 Sometimes After his first night with the local theater group, ambitious Joe (Laurence Harvey) winds up at the pub in his English industrial town with Alice (Simone Signoret), a French-born part time actress, with philosophical chat about the upper-class girl he’s pursuing, in Room At The Top, 1959, from the John Braine novel.

Our Mother's House (1967) -- (Movie Clip) It's Nearly Mother Time Margaret Brooks is Elsa, eldest of the seven Hook children, returned to their London home with the shopping, organizing Hubert (Louis Sheldon Williams) and the others for their daily visit with their ailing mother, opening Jack Clayton’s film from the Julian Gloag novel, Our Mother’s House, 1967, starring Dirk Bogarde.

Our Mother's House (1967) -- (Movie Clip) What's An Orphanage? Eldest Elsa (Margaret Brooks) reads to siblings (Louis Sheldon Williams, Pamela Franklin, Mark Lester, John Gugolka, Sarah Nicholls et al) from the will of their mother, whose passing they elect to conceal from the wider world, early in director Jack Clayton’s Our Mother’s House, 1967.

Our Mother's House (1967) -- (Movie Clip) Like Ostriches In The Sand Their teacher (Claire Davidson), searching for their friend Louis (Parnham Wallace), is about to discover the Hook children (Margaret Brooks, Louis Sheldon Williams et al) have concealed the death of their mother when their estranged father Charlie (top-billed Dirk Bogarde, his first scene) appears, in Our Mother’s House, 1967.

Bespoke Overcoat, The (1956) -- (Movie Clip) An Old Man Is An Old Man London tailor Morrie (David Kossoff) with the ghost of friend Fender (Alfie Bass), whom he just buried with the overcoat he’d made for him before he was taken ill, who explains his contempt for Ranking (Alan Tilvern), for whom he worked as a clerk, Jack Clayton directing, in The Bespoke Overcoat, 1956.

Our Mother's House - (Original Trailer) Afraid of being separated, a family of children keep their mother's death a secret in Our Mother's House (1967) starring Dick Bogarde.

Whole Truth, The - (Original Trailer) Stewart Granger is accused of murdering his mistress and it is up to wife Donna Reed to prove him innocent in The Whole Truth (1958).

Moulin Rouge - (Original Trailer) French painter Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) searches for love despite his physical limitations in Moulin Rouge (1952), an Oscar winning biography by director John Huston.

Pumpkin Eater, The - (Original Trailer) Anne Bancroft won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival as a wife having a nervous breakdown in Harold Pinter's The Pumpkin Eater (1964).

Innocents, The (1961) - (Original Trailer) A governess (Deborah Kerr) believes her charges possessed in the best adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents, 1961, directed by Jack Clayton.

Companions

Christine Norden

Wife

Actor. Married on December 13, 1947; divorced in 1953.

Katherine Kath

Wife

Divorced.

Haya Harareet

Wife

Actor. Survived him.

Bibliography

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