Lewis Gilbert Biography
Lewis Gilbert (1920 – 2018) was a writer, producer and director of various films spanning the entire history of post-war British cinema, a contribution recognized by the award of a BFI Fellowship in 2001. Gilbert was particularly associated with war films , and subsequently with three of the James Bond films. However, more personal examples of his work show a taste for adaptations of stage plays, such as Educating Rita (1983) and Shirley Valentine (1989). Born in Hackney, London in 1920, he grew up in a second generation musical family. His first experience on the stage allowed him to continue as a child actor until he undertook his first experience as an assistant on Hitchcock's film Jamaica Inn (1939). During the war, he joined the RAF and after the war, he continued to write and direct documentary shorts before moving into the production of low-budget feature films, mainly focusing on the theme of war. Alfie (1965) was the first of a series of stage play adaptations that brought Gilbert commercial and critical success in the latter part of his career. Subsequently, this result was repeated for Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. Between Alfie and The Adventurers, Gilbert directed the first of his three Bond films, You Only Live Twice (1967). When he returned to the series in the late 1970s, he recognized that many of Bond's conventions had become anachronistic due to changing attitudes towards gender identity that challenged Bond's male chauvinism. For The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), he suggested that women's roles were "as virile as Bond himself". He also proved adept at effectively managing action sequences on the huge sets characteristic of the Bond films and was admired for his efficient professionalism and knowledge of the business and craft of filmmaking.
