Ronald Neame

Neame was born in London to photographer Elwin Neame and actress Ivy Close. After completing his education at the University College School and Hurstpierpoint College, he drifted into the film industry, and his first professional credit was as an assistant on the Alfred Hitchcock film Blackmail (1929).

He began his career as a cinematographer with the musical comedy Happy (1933), and made his mark with such films as Major Barbara (1941), In Which We Serve (1942), and Blithe Spirit (1945).

In 1947, he turned his attention to directing with Take My Life, a run-of-the-mill murder mystery, but from there he moved on to increasingly more notable films - The Card (1952) with Alec Guinness and Petula Clark; The Horse's Mouth (1958) with Guinness again, who also wrote the Academy Award-nominated screenplay; Tunes of Glory (1960) with Guinness and John Mills; the 1963 Judy Garland musical drama I Could Go On Singing; the adaptation of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden (1964) with Deborah Kerr; the 1966 criminal-comedy story Gambit with Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), with Maggie Smith's Academy Award-winning performance; Scrooge, the 1970 musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol; the 1972 disaster film The Poseidon Adventure; the 1979 sci-fi film Meteor; and the U.S. Supreme Court drama First Monday in October (1981).

As a producer, he was responsible for three classics of British cinema - Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946) - for which he co-wrote the screenplays - and Oliver Twist (1948) - among others.

Neame was married to Beryl Heanly from 1932-1973; they had one son, Christopher Neame, a producer. He has been married to Donna Friedberg since 1993.

In 1996, Neame was awarded the CBE for his contributions to the film industry.

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