Peter Collinson Biography
Peter Collinson was born into a theatrical family on 1 April 1936 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. After his parents' divorce, he lived briefly with his grandmother before being sent to the Actors' Orphanage in Chertsey, Surrey. There he appeared in a series of plays, coming to the attention of the orphanage president, Nöel Coward, who watched over the young Collinson's career, arranging an audition at RADA and his first job as a stagehand at the New Cross Empire.
After national service in Malaysia, Collinson went to work in independent television as a trainee director at ATV. He then moved to the new Ulster Television channel in Northern Ireland, where he became Senior Drama Director and won numerous awards before returning to ATV. His feature film breakthrough came in 1967 with The Penthouse. Although it appeared to follow in the footsteps of Harold Pinter and Joe Orton, this menacing thriller was condemned by critics as a derivative and exploitative mix of sex and violence. Collinson's next project was a film version of Nell Dunn's Up the Junction, which had been made for television by Ken Loach in 1965. It was equally poorly received by critics, but Collinson's strategy of downplaying social criticism in favor of cross-class romance between middle class Polly (Suzy Kendall) and working class Peter (Dennis Waterman), made the film a success with audiences. Collinson continued to follow the zeitgeist with his next project, the anti-war drama The Long Day's Dying (1968), a bold attempt to explore the tensions between hostility to the idea of war and elation at the experience of combat. It benefits greatly from fine performances by David Hemmings, Tony Beckley, Tom Bell and Alan Dobie as the frightened but resourceful soldiers, but it was too violent to attract critics and too pessimistic to appeal to audiences. Much more acceptable was The Italian Job (1969), Collinson's best-known and most popular film. With an excellent screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin and a strong cast led by Michael Caine and Nöel Coward, this crime film remained an audience favorite and was remade in Hollywood by F. Gary Gray in 2003. Collinson was prolific in 1970s, although the general decline of British cinema during the decade forced it to be resourceful in its financing arrangements. The comedy-adventure You Can't Win 'Em All (1970), starring Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson as American mercenaries in 1920s Turkey, was supported by Columbia. Fright (1971) and Straight on Till Morning (1972) brought him closer to the end of market exploitation. After making the interestingly pessimistic spy film, Innocent Bystanders (1972), Collinson turned to Europe, making The Man Called Noon (Spain/Italy/UK, 1973), a western, and Open Season, which returns to some of the themes of The Attico, in Spain. Always resourceful, Collinson went to Israel to make The Sell-Out (UK/Italy, 1975); South Africa to make Tigers Don't Cry (1976); Canada to make Tomorrow Never Comes (UK/Canada, 1977); and Australia to make his latest film, The Earthling. He died of cancer on December 16, 1980 in Los Angeles.
