J. Lee Thompson Biography
J. Lee Thompson (1914 – 2002) English film director and screenwriter, born in Bristol in 1914. A solid dramatic structure, combined with care in the study and psychological penetration of characters were the recurring elements that distinguished his work as a director and as a screenwriter, allowing him to deal with various genres, from drama to thriller, from action to war films. With The Guns of Navarone (1961), winner of the Golden Globe in 1962 as best film, he obtained an Oscar nomination as best director. Having moved to the South of England with his mother, he attended Dover College and, upon completion of his studies, made his debut as an actor with the Nottingham Repertory Company in 1931; he then wrote a play for the theatre, Double Error, which was staged at the Fortune Theater in London in the 1934-35 season, and the rights to which were then purchased by British International Picture (BIP) to make a film. BIP then offered him a position in the script department at Elstree where he worked for fifteen years. From 1940 to 1944 he served in the Royal Air Force, continuing to write dramas for the theater including Murder without a crime (1942) which in 1950 became his directorial debut. With subsequent films he confirmed his talent for psychological drama without giving up thriller atmospheres and paying particular attention to the construction of characters. In 1962, in Hollywood, he filmed Cape Fear with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, one of the most famous titles of a career in which he alternated good performances such as the war Before winter comes (1968; winter) to routine films such as the last episodes of the saga that began with Planet of the apes (1968; Planet of the Apes) by Franklin J. Schaffner, or Conquest of the planet of the apes (1972; 1999 ‒ Conquest of the Earth ) and Battle for the planet of the apes (1973; Year 2670 ‒ Last Act).
