Celebrity Biographies
michael anderson
He was the last surviving director nominated for an Oscar in the 1950s. Michael Anderson has died at the age of 98, as a result of a myocardial infarction. He specialized in adventure, war and fantasy films. Many pulled their hair out, but he made “Around the World in 80 Days” win an Oscar for best film. In addition, throughout his career, he demonstrated an unusual interest in the Catholic figure of the papacy.
Michael Joseph Anderson was born on January 30, 1920 in London, England, into a family of actors, his parents were Lawrence Anderson and Beatrice Anderson and his great-aunt Mary Anderson enjoyed fame for interpreting works by Shakespeare. As an actor he had a fleeting appearance on the screen, for example he was in Blood, sweat and tears (1942), by David Lean .
World War II touched him squarely in the Royal Signals Corps, where he met Peter Ustinov , and only after the war was over was he able to channel himself professionally collaborating with his new friend. His first films were made in the United Kingdom, taking advantage of his war experience to delve into this genre. She made her debut with Ustinov with Private Angelo (1949), although The Dam Busters (1955) is highly regarded above all , whose climax it is claimed that she inspired Georges Lucas for Star Wars . Other war films to Anderson’s credit include Rescue Patrol (1964) and Operation Crossbow (1965).
The following year he would dare with a rather free adaptation of George Orwell ‘s emblematic novel , 1984 (1956) . The taste for this type of dystopian plot would continue in Logan’s Run (1976) – where his son Michael Anderson Jr. has a role – and in the miniseries that he adapts to Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles (1980).
Its most popular title, produced by Mike Todd in Hollywood and winner of the Oscar for Best Film, was Around the World in 80 Days (1956), an attractive film based on the work of Jules Verne , which allowed visitors to visit many countries and play with the contrast of personalities offered by the phlegmatic David Niven with the talkative Mario Moreno “Cantinflas” . In the same line of adventure cinema, Anderson would deliver Mystery on the lost ship (1959), Doc Savage, the man of bronze (1975) and Orca, the killer whale (1977).
The career of the British director who later settled in Canada is clearly irregular, but from time to time a pearl shines in his craftsmanship. The Fisherman’s Sandals (1968) adapted Morris West’s best-seller, an anticipation of the first Pope to come from the East ( Anthony Quinn ), who in the real world would be the Pole Karol Wojtila, that is, John Paul II. Precisely in 1989 he adapted a play by this Pope, in The Goldsmith’s Workshop . In addition, another twist on the subject of the papacy, in 1972 he directed Pope Joan with Liv Ullmann , based on the legendary story of a woman disguised as a man, who would have been elected pope without knowing her sex.
The last film directed by Anderson was based on a famous story, Pinocchio and Geppetto (1999), which starred Martin Landau , at that time recently awarded an Oscar for Ed Wood , but the film passed uneventfully.
The director was married three times. He between 1939 and 1969 with Betty Jordan, who gave him 5 children. Then with Vera Carlisle, with whom he had a child. And since 1977 with Adrienne Ellis, for which he added two stepchildren to his large family.