Richard B Goodwin
Richard B Goodwin, Film Producer
In a career spanning 40 years, Richard Goodwin has been responsible for some of the best-known British films of his generation. As a film producer he received an Academy Award nomination for A Passage to India (1984) as well as a number of BAFTA nominations. His filmography includes Romeo and Juliet, The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, The Mirror Crack’d, Evil under the Sun, A Passage to India, Little Dorrit and Seven Years in Tibet.
Born in Bombay in 1934, Richard Goodwin grew up in India until the end of the war. He traveled to England in the first convoy at the time to reach the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. After serving out his time at boarding school, he joined the SAS in 1952 and spent his national service in the Malayan jungle. On his return to England he turned down a place at Cambridge to become military adviser on A Hill in Korea with Michael Caine. By 1956, Richard had begun his long association with fellow producer John Brabourne and together they were to make films together for more than 35 years.
Richard Goodwin learnt his trade as location and production manager and after working as associate producer on Franco Zeferelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968), he produced the much acclaimed Tales of Beatrix Potter with the Royal Ballet. By 1974, Richard and John Brabourne had produced the first of a number of “all star” adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels Murder on the Orient Express.[1] The film was a huge success grossing $19 million from a budget of $1.5 million. Directed by Sidney Lumet the cast included Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery and Ingrid Bergman. Death on the Nile, The Mirror Crack’d and Evil under the Sun followed.
In 1981, Richard and John Brabourne finally secured the rights to produce E.M.Forster’s A Passage to India.[1] They managed to persuade David Lean back to directing after a 14-year hiatus. A Passage to India opened to tremendous critical acclaim in 1984 and received no less than 11 Academy Award nominations.
Their next success was to be Little Dorrit (1986).[1] It was directed and adapted from Charles Dickens’ novel by Richard’s wife, Christine Edzard. Unlikely to be box office material with a total running time of 6 hours, the critics loved it and the film in 2 parts ran for months in British and American cinemas. Little Dorrit was made entirely at the studios set up by Richard and his wife in disused warehouses by the river Thames in the 1970s. Sands Films, their film and costume production company, continues to successfully operate after nearly 40 years. Richard Goodwin’s last major film was Seven Years in Tibet (1994) with Brad Pitt and David Thewliss that he executive produced.
In the latter part of 1980s, Richard turned his hand to a television series for Channel 4/PBS about his travels from London to Vienna on a barge called the Leontyne. An accompanying book, Leontyne, written by Richard was published by Collins. Later, Richard went on to shoot and produce a collection of films based on his travels on another boat the Regina depicting the vanishing trades of France.