Anthony Simmons
Directing
- Born
- December 16, 1922 · West Ham, London, England, UK
- Died
- January 22, 2016 (age 93)
Anthony Simmons (16 December 1922 – 22 January 2016) was a British writer and film director. He was associated with, though separate from, the Free Cinema movement; he said he was greatly influenced by Humphrey Jennings and by Michelangelo Antonioni’s movie Il Grido (1957).
Simmons was born in West Ham, then in Essex, now part of the London Borough of Newham, the fourth of five children – three boys and two girls – to parents of Polish-Jewish extraction, Miriam (née Corb) and Joseph Simmons (originally Anzulowsky), from a family of market traders. He was named Isidore but adopted the forename Anthony in his teens. After attending West Ham Grammar School, Simmons gained a law degree from the London School of Economics, where his course was interrupted by wartime service.
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Simmons asserted: "I wasn’t aiming to be a film director. I was a lawyer aiming to be a writer. But I felt that if I wrote films it was more immediate. It’s quicker. You haven’t got to spell out the words, you just make the image and tell the story."
His documentary Sunday by the Sea (1951) won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival. Four in the Morning (1965), his second feature film as director, did not gain a circuit release although it won awards at several international film festivals, and a BAFTA for Judi Dench as the 'Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles'.
For several years Simmons worked in radio and made television commercials until his next feature The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973) starring Peter Sellers. His feature movie Black Joy (1977) was entered into the Cannes Film Festival. His television drama On Giant's Shoulders (1979) about Terry Wiles won an Emmy Award.
He also directed episodes of British television series including The Professionals, Supergran, Inspector Morse, Van Der Valk, A Touch of Frost and C.A.T.S. Eyes.
Known for
Behind the camera17
- 1989Poison Candy Director, Screenplay
- 1986The Day After the Fair Director
- 1982Life After Death Director
- 1981Green Ice Screenplay
- 1981Stainless Steel and the Star Spies Director
- 1979On Giant's Shoulders Adaptation, Director
- 1977Black Joy Director, Writer
- 1973The Optimists of Nine Elms Director, Novel
- 1965Four in the Morning Director, Screenplay, Story
- 1964No Short Cut
