Freddie Francis

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Freddie Francis

Freddie Francis, left, in the 1960s
Born Frederick Francis
December 22, 1917(1917-12-22)
Islington, London, England
Died March 17, 2007 (aged 89)
Isleworth, Middlesex, England
Years active 1937 - 1999
Spouse(s) Gladys Dorrell (1940-1961)
Pamela Mann (1963-2007)

Frederick William (Freddie) Francis (22 December 1917 – 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director. He died at age 89 as the result of the lingering effects of a stroke, after a long and distinguished career in the cinema.

He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer, including winning two Academy Awards, for Sons and Lovers and Glory. As a director, he has cult status on account of his association with the British horror studios Amicus and Hammer in the 1960s. His son Kevin Francis became a film producer.

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[edit] Early life and career

Born in Islington in London, England, Francis was originally on the way to a career in engineering. At school, a piece he wrote about films of the future won him a scholarship to the North-West Polytechnic in Kentish Town. He left school at age 16, becoming an apprentice to a stills photographer by the name of Louis Prothero. Freddie stayed with him for six months. In this time they photograped stills for a Stanley Lupino picture made at Ealing. This led to him successively becoming a clapper boy, camera loader and focus puller.

In 1939, Francis joined the Army, where he would spend the next seven years. Eventually he was assigned as a cameraman and director to the Army Kinematograph Unit at Wembley, where he worked on many training films. About this, Francis said, "Most of the time I was with various film units within the service, so I got quite a bit of experience in all sorts of jobs, including being a cameraman and editing and generally being a jack of all trades."

Upon his return to civilian life, Francis spent the next 10 years working as a camera operator. Some of the films he worked on during this period include The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Beat the Devil (1953), and Moby Dick (1956); he was a frequent collaborator with cinematographers Christopher Challis (nine films) and Oswald Morris (five films).

After Moby Dick, Francis became a full-time cinematographer, handling such prestige pictures as Room at the Top (1959), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Sons and Lovers (1960), and The Innocents (1961).

Francis received many industry awards, including, in 1997, an international achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers, and, in 2004, Bafta's special achievement award.

[edit] Directorial career

Following his Academy Award win for Sons and Lovers, Francis began his career as director of feature films.His first feature as director was 'Two and Two make Six' 1962. For the next 20-plus years, Francis worked continuously as a director of low-budget films, most of them in the genres of horror or psycho-thriller.

Beginning in 1963 with Paranoiac, Francis made numerous films for Hammer throughout the 1960s and 1970s. These films included thrillers like Nightmare (1964) and Hysteria (1965), as well as more traditional monster movies such as The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. On his apparent typecasting as a director of these types of movies, Francis said, "Horror films have liked me more than I have liked horror films."

Also in the '60s, Francis began an association with Amicus Productions, another studio which, like Hammer, specialized in horror pictures. Most of the films Francis made for Amicus were anthologies such as Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1968) and Tales from the Crypt.

Of the films Francis directed, one of his favourites was Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly (1970). Mumsy... was a black comedy about an isolated upper class family whose relationships and behaviors came equipped with deadly consequences. The film was not very well received by mainstream critics, but has gone on to become a minor cult favourite amongst fans.

In 1985, Francis directed The Doctor and the Devils, which is based on the crimes of Burke and Hare.

Francis's last film as director was The Dark Tower (1986) (no relation to the 2004 book of the same name by Stephen King).

[edit] Return to cinematography

With The Elephant Man (1980), Francis found himself gaining new-found industry and critical respect as a cinematographer. During the 1980s he worked on films like The Executioner's Song (1982), Dune (1984) and Glory (1989), which earned him his second Academy Award.

In 1991, Francis provided the cinematography for the critical favourite The Man in the Moon as well as Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear. His final film as cinematographer was David Lynch's The Straight Story, which he shot on location in Iowa in 23 days.

[edit] Personal life

Freddie Francis married first, in 1940, Gladys Dorrell, with whom he had a son; in 1963 he married, secondly, Pamela Mann Francis, with whom he had a daughter and a second son.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] As cinematographer

[edit] As director

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

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