Celebrity Biographies
Antonia Bird
British director Antonia Bird died on October 25, 2013, at the age of 54 from thyroid cancer, a disease that had required medical intervention in April. “What a sad day. RIP Antonia Bird. Goodbye to my wonderful friend,” actor Robert Carlyle, who worked under her several times, has declared on Twitter.
Born on May 27, 1959, Antonia Bird began her career in the theater, holding various administrative positions, and finally ended up working as a stage director. She got her start in the audiovisual field when she adapted her stage production of the play “Submariners” for the BBC. She ended up directing episodes of various series, such as Gente de barrio , Police de barrio or The Men’s Room .
She debuted as a filmmaker with the controversial Priest , about a homosexual priest, who questions his vocation. She raised eyebrows over her biased portrayal of Catholicism, and helped to undermine Disney’s partnership with Miramax, the film’s producer. The film was heavily influenced by the cinema of Ken Loach , of which Bird was a great admirer, due to its realistic tone, its portrayal of underprivileged characters, and the presence in the cast of Robert Carlyle , who starred in Riff-Raff with the director.
The repercussion of the film led to her being recruited in Hollywood to direct Crazy Love , with Chris O’Donnell as a university student in love with Drew Barrymore , in the role of a young woman with mental imbalance. The film just didn’t work.
Perhaps Antonia Bird ‘s best work is The Face (1997) , reshot in the UK with Robert Carlyle , about a robbery that goes wrong. It is a film with few pretensions that tries to be along the lines of Reservoir Dogs .
His last theatrically released feature film was the US/UK/Czech Republic co-production Ravenous , also starring Robert Carlyle , accompanied by Guy Pearce . A mix between western and horror movies, it addresses the subject of anthropophagy in a somewhat lurid way.
But the film flopped at the theaters, and Bird returned to television. After a decade dealing with series and TV movies, she was about to return to the big screen with Cross My Mind , erotic drama with Olivia Williams and Peter Mullan .