Bill Forsyth

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Bill Forsyth (born July 29, 1946, Glasgow) is a Scottish film director and writer, noted for his commitment to national film-making.

Forsyth first came to attention with a low-budget film, That Sinking Feeling, made with youth theatre actors and featuring a cameo appearance by the Edinburgh gallery owner Richard Demarco. The relative success of the film was carried to a higher level by his next film Gregory's Girl in 1981. This featured some of the same young actors, in particular John Gordon Sinclair, as well as the acting debut of the singer Clare Grogan. The film was a major hit and won 'Best Screenplay' in that year's BAFTA Awards. He later wrote and directed the successful Local Hero for David Puttnam. It was rated in the top 100 films of the 1980s in a Premiere magazine recap of the decade. Another notable Forsyth film is 1984's Comfort and Joy.

When Puttnam went to Hollywood, Forsyth followed, but had limited success. The 1987 Housekeeping was his first American film. Another movie, Being Human, was shelved by the studio for four years after Puttnam was ousted. Gregory's Two Girls appeared as a sequel to Gregory's Girl in 2000, but received mixed reviews.

[edit] Books

• Allan Hunter & Mark Astaire. Local Hero: the making of the film (1983).

• 'Bill Forsyth: The Imperfect Anarchist' IN: From Limelight to Satellite: A Scottish Film Book (1990).

[edit] Filmography

• That Sinking Feeling (1980)
• Gregory's Girl (1981)
• Andrina (1981)
• Local Hero (1983)
• Comfort and Joy (1984)
• Housekeeping (1987)
• Breaking In (1989)
• Being Human (1993)
• Gregory's Two Girls (1999)

[edit] External links

• Bill Forsyth at the Internet Movie Database
• Bill Forsyth biography and filmography at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• 1985 interview & portrait