Tony Richardson

For other people named Tony Richardson, see Tony Richardson (disambiguation).

Tony Richardson
Born	Cecil Antonio Richardson (1928-06-05)5 June 1928 Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	14 November 1991(1991-11-14) (aged 63) Los Angeles, California
Occupations	Director producer screenwriter
Years active	1952–1991
Spouse	Vanessa Redgrave ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1967)​
Children	3, including Natasha and Joely
Relatives	Daisy Bevan (granddaughter) Micheál Richardson (grandson)

Cecil Antonio Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director, producer and screenwriter, whose career spanned five decades. He was identified with the "angry young men" group of British directors and playwrights during the 1950s, and was later a key figure in the British New Wave filmmaking movement.^[1]

His films Look Back in Anger (1959), The Entertainer (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) are considered classics of kitchen sink realism.^[1] He won the 1964 Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for the film Tom Jones. He was also a two-time BAFTA Award winner, and was twice nominated for the Palme d'Or.

With his wife Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson was the father to actresses Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson.

Early life

Richardson was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1928 to Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist, and his wife, Elsie Evans (née Campion). He lived on the edge of Saltaire as a young child and kept grass snakes with his childhood friend Joan Naylor.^[2] He was Head Boy at Ashville College, Harrogate and attended Wadham College, University of Oxford. His Oxford contemporaries included Rupert Murdoch, Margaret Thatcher, Kenneth Tynan, Lindsay Anderson and Gavin Lambert. He had the unprecedented distinction of being the President of both the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club (the ETC), in addition to being the theatre critic for the university magazine Isis.^[3] Those he cast in his student productions included Shirley Williams (as Cordelia), John Schlesinger, Nigel Davenport and Robert Robinson.^[4]

Career

Richardson's house from 1928 to 1948, 28 Bingley Road, Saltaire, Shipley

In 1955, in his directing debut,^[5] Richardson produced Jean Giraudoux's The Apollo of Bellac for television with Denholm Elliott and Natasha Parry in the main roles.^[6] Around the same time he began to be active in Britain's Free Cinema movement, co-directing the non-fiction short Momma Don't Allow (also 1955) with Karel Reisz.^[7]

Part of the British "New Wave" of directors, he was involved in the formation of the English Stage Company, along with his close friend George Goetschius and George Devine. He directed John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court Theatre, and in the same period he directed Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. Then in 1957 he directed Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice in Osborne's next play The Entertainer, again for the Royal Court.

In 1959, Richardson co-founded Woodfall Film Productions with John Osborne and producer Harry Saltzman, and, as Woodfall's debut, directed the film version of Look Back in Anger (1959), his first feature film. The Entertainer (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), based on the novel by Alan Sillitoe, also were produced there.

BFI plaque commemorating Richardson's contribution to cinema

Many of Richardson's films, such as A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, were part of the acclaimed kitchen sink realism movement popular in Britain at the time, and several of his films continue to be held as cornerstones of the movement.^[8][9]

In 1964, Richardson received two Academy Awards (Best Director and Best Picture) for Tom Jones (1963) based on the novel by Henry Fielding.^[10]

His next film was The Loved One (1965), in which he worked with established stars, including John Gielgud, Rod Steiger and Robert Morse, and worked in Hollywood both on location and on the sound stage.^[11] In his autobiography, he confesses that he did not share the general admiration of Haskell Wexler, who worked on The Loved One as both director of photography and a producer.^[12]

Among stars that Richardson directed were Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, Rob Lowe, Milton Berle, Trevor Howard, David Hemmings, Nicol Williamson, Tom Courtenay, Lynn Redgrave, Marianne Faithfull, Richard Burton,^[13] Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Mick Jagger, Katharine Hepburn, Seth Green, Tommy Lee Jones and Judi Dench. His musical composers included Antoine Duhamel, John Addison and Shel Silverstein. His screenwriters were Jean Genet, Christopher Isherwood, Terry Southern, Marguerite Duras, Edward Bond (adapting Vladimir Nabokov) and Edward Albee. Richardson and Osborne eventually fell out^[14] during production of the film Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). The basic issue was Osborne's unwillingness to go through the rewrite process, more arduous in film than it is in the theatre. Richardson had a different version. In his autobiography (p. 195), he writes that Osborne was angry at being replaced in a small role by Laurence Harvey to whom the producers had obligations. Osborne took literary revenge by creating a fictionalised and pseudonymous Richardson – a domineering and arrogant character whom everyone hated – in his play The Hotel in Amsterdam.

Richardson's work was stylistically varied. Mademoiselle (1966) was shot noir-style on location in rural France with a static camera, monochrome film stock and no music. The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) was part epic and part animated feature. Ned Kelly (1970) was what might be called an Aussie-western. Laughter in the Dark (1969) and A Delicate Balance (1973) were psycho-dramas. Joseph Andrews (1977), based on another novel by Henry Fielding, was a return to the mood of Tom Jones.

In 1970, Richardson was set to direct a film about Vaslav Nijinsky with a script by Edward Albee. It was to have starred Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky, Claude Jade as Romola and Paul Scofield as Diaghilev, but producer Harry Saltzman cancelled the project during pre-production.

In 1974, he travelled to Los Angeles to work on a script (never produced) with Sam Shepard, and took up residence there.^[15] Later that year, he began work on Mahogany (1975), starring Diana Ross, but was fired by Motown head Berry Gordy shortly after production began, owing to creative differences.

He wrote and directed the comedy-drama The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), based on John Irving's novel of the same name and starring Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges and Rob Lowe. Although it was a box-office failure, the film received a positive critical reception.

Richardson made four more major films before his death. His last, Blue Sky (1994), was not released for nearly three years after he died. Jessica Lange won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the film.^[16]

In 1966, Richardson is alleged to have financed the escape from Wormwood Scrubs prison of the spy and double agent George Blake.^[17][18]

Personal life

Richardson was married to English actress Vanessa Redgrave from 1962 to 1967. The couple had two daughters, Natasha (1963–2009) and Joely (born 1965), then he left Redgrave for French actress and singer Jeanne Moreau.^[19] In 1972, he had a relationship with Grizelda Grimond, who was a secretary for Richardson's former business partner Oscar Lewenstein, and daughter of British politician Jo Grimond. Grizelda Grimond gave birth to his daughter, Katherine Grimond, on 8 January 1973.^[20]

Death

Richardson was bisexual, but never acknowledged it publicly until 1985, the same year he contracted HIV.^[21][22][23] He died of complications from AIDS on 14 November 1991 at the age of 63.^[21]

Filmography

Film

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes
1955	Momma Don't Allow	Yes	Yes	Co-directed with Karel Reisz
1967	Red and Blue	Yes	No	Segment of Red, White and Zero
1990	Hills Like White Elephants	Yes	No	Segment of Women & Men: Stories of Seduction

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1959	Look Back in Anger	Yes	No	No
1960	The Entertainer	Yes	No	No
	Saturday Night and Sunday Morning	No	No	Yes
1961	Sanctuary	Yes	No	No
	A Taste of Honey	Yes	Yes	Yes
1962	The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner	Yes	No	Yes
1963	Tom Jones	Yes	No	Yes	Academy Award for Best Picture Academy Award for Best Director
1964	Girl with Green Eyes	No	No	Yes
1965	The Loved One	Yes	No	No
1966	Mademoiselle	Yes	No	No
1967	The Sailor from Gibraltar	Yes	Yes	No
1968	The Charge of the Light Brigade	Yes	No	No
1969	Laughter in the Dark	Yes	No	No
	Hamlet	Yes	Yes	No
1970	Ned Kelly	Yes	Yes	No
1973	A Delicate Balance	Yes	No	No
1974	Dead Cert	Yes	Yes	No
1975	Mahogany	Yes	No	No	Uncredited; replaced by Berry Gordy
1977	Joseph Andrews	Yes	Yes	No
1982	The Border	Yes	No	No
1984	The Hotel New Hampshire	Yes	Yes	No
1994	Blue Sky	Yes	No	No

Television

TV movies

Year	Title	Director	Producer
1952	The Sound of Stillness	No	Yes
1954	Parliament of Science	Yes	Yes
1955	It Should Happen to a Dog	Yes	Yes
	Mr. Kettle and Mrs. Moon	Yes	No
	Othello	Yes	Yes
1956	The Gambler	Yes	Yes
1978	A Death in Canaan	Yes	No
1986	Penalty Phase	Yes	No
1988	Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun	Yes	No

TV series

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
1952	Happy and Glorious	No	Yes	6 episodes
1953	Wednesday Theatre	Yes	Yes	Episodes "Curtain Down" and "Box for One"
1955	You Know What People Are	Yes	Yes	6 episodes
	Appointment with Drama	Yes	Yes	Episodes "The Rivals", "The Birthday Present", "Absence of Mind" and "The Apollo of Bellac"
	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Yes	Yes	Episodes "Markheim", "The Makepeace Story #1: The Ruthless Destiny", "The Makepeace Story #2: A New Generation" and "The Makepeace Story #3: Family Business"
1956	Tales from Soho	No	Yes	6 episodes
	ITV Play of the Week	Yes	No	Episode Look Back in Anger
1957	Theatre Night	Yes	No	Episode The Member of the Wedding
1960	BBC Sunday-Night Play	Yes	Yes	Episode A Subject of Scandal and Concern
1990	The Phantom of the Opera	Yes	No	2 episodes

Theatre

sources: Adler; Little & McLaughlin; Richardson

Year	Play	House	City	Run
1954	The Changeling	Wyndham's	London	1 performance
1955	The Country Wife	Theatre Royal Stratford East	London	3 weeks
	Mr Kettle & Mrs Moon[24]	Duchess	London
1956	The Mulberry Bush[25]	Royal Court	London
	The Crucible[25]	Royal Court	London
	Look Back in Anger	Royal Court	London	151 performances
	Cards of Identity	Royal Court	London
1957	Look Back in Anger	John Golden, Lyceum	New York	1 year
			Moscow
	The Member of the Wedding	Royal Court	London
	The Entertainer	Royal Court	London	4 weeks
	The Apollo of Bellac	Royal Court	London
	The Chairs	Royal Court	London
	The Entertainer	Palace	London	6 months
	The Making of Moo	Royal Court	London
	Requiem for a Nun	Royal Court	London
1958	The Entertainer	Royale	New York
	The Chairs & The Lesson	Phoenix	New York	17 performances
	Flesh to a Tiger	Royal Court	London
	Pericles	Shakespeare Memorial Theatre	Stratford-on-Avon
1959	Othello[26]	Shakespeare Memorial Theatre	Stratford-on-Avon
	Orpheus Descending	Royal Court	London
	Look After Lulu!	Royal Court	London	45 performances
		New	London	5 months
1960	A Taste of Honey		Los Angeles
		Booth, Lyceum	New York	376 performances
1961	The Changeling	Royal Court	London
	Luther	Royal Court[27]	London	28 performances
		Phoenix	London	239 performances
1962	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Royal Court	London	29 performances
	Semi-Detached	Saville	London
1963	Natural Affection	Booth	New York	31 performances
	Luther	Lunt-Fontanne, St. James	New York	6 months
	Semi-Detached	Music Box	New York	12 performances
	Arturo Ui	Lunt-Fontanne	New York	8 performances
1964	The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore[28]	Brooks Atkinson	New York	5 performances
	The Seagull	Queen's Theatre	London
	St Joan of the Stockyards	Queen's Theatre	London	3 weeks
1969	Hamlet	Roundhouse	London	10 weeks
		Lunt-Fontanne	New York[29]	52 performances
1972	The Threepenny Opera	Prince of Wales	London
1972	I, Claudius	Queen's Theatre	London
	Anthony and Cleopatra	Bankside Globe Playhouse	London
1976	The Lady from the Sea	Circle in the Square Theatre	New York
1979	As You Like It	Center Theatre	Long Beach
1983	Toyer	Kennedy Center	Washington
1984	Dreamhouse	L.A. Stage Co.	Hollywood

Bibliography

• Richardson, Tony (1993). The Long Distance Runner: A Memoir. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0688121013.
• Heilpern, John (2006). John Osborne: A Patriot for Us. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-6780-6.
• Little, Ruth & McLaughlin, Emily (2007). The Royal Court Theatre Inside Out. Oberon Books. ISBN 978-1-84002-763-1.
• Adler, Tim (2012). The House of Redgrave. London: Aurum. ISBN 978-1-84513-623-9.

References

1. "BFI Screenonline: Richardson, Tony (1928-1991) Biography". screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
2. Richardson, pp 1–5
3. Richardson, p.45
4. Adler, p.26
5. David Parkinson, 'Richardson, Cecil Antonio [Tony] (1928–1991)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
6. "Giraudoux Play on Television 'The Apollo of Bellac'", The Times, 13 August 1955
7. "Momma Don't Allow (1956)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016.
8. "Tony Richardson & The Kitchen Sink". Make A Noise!. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
9. "10 essential films from the 'Kitchen sink realism' movement". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 2 May 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
10. "Tony Richardson; Leading Film Director for 30 Years". Los Angeles Times. 15 November 1991. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
11. Crowther, Bosley (12 October 1965). "Screen: A Searing Look at the Funeral Profession:Waugh's 'Loved One' Adapted to Film". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
12. Richardson, p. 163
13. Until dismissed by Richardson for repeatedly failing to show up on set as contracted (Richardson, pp. 212–3)
14. Heilpern, pp.346–51
15. Richardson, p. 242.
16. "Blue Sky: the 1990s nuclear drama that won Jessica Lange her second Oscar". British Film Institute. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
17. "John Quine". The Daily Telegraph. London. 12 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
18. "Cold War 'superspy' George Blake, who escaped from a UK jail and became a Russian hero, dies at 98". Irish Independent. 26 December 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2020. On the night of October 25, 1966, the trio (financed by Oscar-winning movie director Tony Richardson)
19. needs substantiation
20. Richardson, p.233
21. Hattenstone, Simon (13 June 2016). "Vanessa Redgrave on why she was ready to die: 'Trying to live was getting too tiring'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
22. Nikkhah, Roya (21 May 2011). "Joely Richardson breaks silence over family scandal claims". The Telegraph. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
23. "The Tumultuous Tony Richardson". Legacy. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
24. Richardson was fired by the author J.B. Priestley, who took over directing himself
25. As Asst. to George Devine
26. Starring Paul Robeson
27. Also Nottingham, Paris, Amsterdam, Edinburgh Festival
28. Starring Tallulah Bankhead
29. Also toured

External links

• Portraits of Tony Richardson at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Tony Richardson at IMDb
• BFI: Tony Richardson