Anthony Asquith(1902-1968)
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
British film director Anthony Asquith was born on November 9, 1902, to
H.H. Asquith, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and his second wife. A former home secretary and the future
leader of the Liberal Party, H.H. Asquith served as prime minister of
the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 and was subsequently elevated to the
hereditary peerage. His youngest child, Anthony, was called Puffin by
his family, a nickname given him by his mother, who thought he
resembled one. Puffin was also the name his friends called him
throughout his life.
Asquith was active in the British film industry from the late silent
period until the mid-1960s. As a director he was highly respected by
his contemporaries and had a long and successful career; by the 1960s
he was one of only three British directors (the others being
David Lean and
Carol Reed) who were directing major
international motion picture productions. However, Asquith's proclivity
for adapting plays for the screen caused an erosion in his critical
reputation as a filmmaker after his death. He was faulted for what was
perceived as his failure to focus, like his contemporary
Alfred Hitchcock, on the
cinematic. Asquith was known as an actor's director, and solicited some
of the finest film performances from Britain's greatest actors,
including Edith Evans and
Michael Redgrave.
Although Asquith's first love was music, he lacked musical talent. He
channeled his artistic ambitions toward the nascent motion picture, and
was instrumental in the formation of the London Film Society to promote
artistic appreciation of film. Asquith traveled to Hollywood in the
1920s to observe American film production techniques, and after
returning to England, he became a director.
Among his best-known films is
Pygmalion (1938), an adaptation of
George Bernard Shaw's stage play,
which he co-directed with its star,
Leslie Howard. The film was a
major critical success, even in the United States, winning multiple
Academy Award nominations. Nobel Prize-winner Shaw, who had been a
co-founder of the London Film Society along with Asquith, won an
Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for the film. Asquith had a
long professional association with playwright
Terence Rattigan, and two of Asquith's
most famous and successful pictures were based on Rattigan plays,
The Winslow Boy (1948) and
The Browning Version (1951).
Asquith directed the screen version of Rattigan's first successful
play,
French Without Tears (1940),
in 1940.
Asquith's most successful postwar film was, arguably, his adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's play
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).
More than a half-century after it was made, Asquith's film remains the
best adaptation of Wilde's work. Ironically, Asquith's father H.H.,
while serving as Home Secretary, ordered Wilde's arrest for his
homosexual behavior. Wilde's arrest, for "indecent behavior", led to
his incarceration in the Reading jail and destroyed the great
playwright, personally. The Wilde incident stifled gay culture in
Britain for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Another irony of
the situation is that H.H.'s youngest son, Anthony, himself was gay.
By the 1960s Asquith was directing Hollywood-style all-star
productions, including the episodic
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964),
once again from a screenplay by Rattigan, and the
Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor
potboiler The V.I.P.s (1963), also
with a screenplay by Rattigan. It is based in an incident in the life
of Laurence Olivier, a frequent Asquith
collaborator. In 1967 Asquith was tipped to direct the big-screen
adaptation of the best-selling novel
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
set to co-star Olivier and
Anthony Quinn, but he had to drop
out of the production due to ill heath. He died on February 20, 1968,
at the age of 65.
The British Academy Award for best music is named the Anthony Asquith
Award in his honor.
H.H. Asquith, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and his second wife. A former home secretary and the future
leader of the Liberal Party, H.H. Asquith served as prime minister of
the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 and was subsequently elevated to the
hereditary peerage. His youngest child, Anthony, was called Puffin by
his family, a nickname given him by his mother, who thought he
resembled one. Puffin was also the name his friends called him
throughout his life.
Asquith was active in the British film industry from the late silent
period until the mid-1960s. As a director he was highly respected by
his contemporaries and had a long and successful career; by the 1960s
he was one of only three British directors (the others being
David Lean and
Carol Reed) who were directing major
international motion picture productions. However, Asquith's proclivity
for adapting plays for the screen caused an erosion in his critical
reputation as a filmmaker after his death. He was faulted for what was
perceived as his failure to focus, like his contemporary
Alfred Hitchcock, on the
cinematic. Asquith was known as an actor's director, and solicited some
of the finest film performances from Britain's greatest actors,
including Edith Evans and
Michael Redgrave.
Although Asquith's first love was music, he lacked musical talent. He
channeled his artistic ambitions toward the nascent motion picture, and
was instrumental in the formation of the London Film Society to promote
artistic appreciation of film. Asquith traveled to Hollywood in the
1920s to observe American film production techniques, and after
returning to England, he became a director.
Among his best-known films is
Pygmalion (1938), an adaptation of
George Bernard Shaw's stage play,
which he co-directed with its star,
Leslie Howard. The film was a
major critical success, even in the United States, winning multiple
Academy Award nominations. Nobel Prize-winner Shaw, who had been a
co-founder of the London Film Society along with Asquith, won an
Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for the film. Asquith had a
long professional association with playwright
Terence Rattigan, and two of Asquith's
most famous and successful pictures were based on Rattigan plays,
The Winslow Boy (1948) and
The Browning Version (1951).
Asquith directed the screen version of Rattigan's first successful
play,
French Without Tears (1940),
in 1940.
Asquith's most successful postwar film was, arguably, his adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's play
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).
More than a half-century after it was made, Asquith's film remains the
best adaptation of Wilde's work. Ironically, Asquith's father H.H.,
while serving as Home Secretary, ordered Wilde's arrest for his
homosexual behavior. Wilde's arrest, for "indecent behavior", led to
his incarceration in the Reading jail and destroyed the great
playwright, personally. The Wilde incident stifled gay culture in
Britain for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Another irony of
the situation is that H.H.'s youngest son, Anthony, himself was gay.
By the 1960s Asquith was directing Hollywood-style all-star
productions, including the episodic
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964),
once again from a screenplay by Rattigan, and the
Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor
potboiler The V.I.P.s (1963), also
with a screenplay by Rattigan. It is based in an incident in the life
of Laurence Olivier, a frequent Asquith
collaborator. In 1967 Asquith was tipped to direct the big-screen
adaptation of the best-selling novel
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
set to co-star Olivier and
Anthony Quinn, but he had to drop
out of the production due to ill heath. He died on February 20, 1968,
at the age of 65.
The British Academy Award for best music is named the Anthony Asquith
Award in his honor.