Ronald Neame

The Greyhound Ronald Neame’s dedication to the Seventh Art came from caste, since his father Elwin Neame directed films in the silent film stage, and his mother Ivy Close was an actress. In fact, he would take his first steps in the profession at the age of 16 at Elstree, a British company.

Ronald Neame was born in London on April 23, 1911, and before directing films he would go through all levels of the profession, that is, assistant director, cinematographer, screenwriter and producer. Which allowed him to work with some of the greatest, such as Alfred Hitchcock , whom he assisted in Blackmail (The Girl from London) in 1929. In his association with English filmmakers, his work as a cinematographer for David Lean in the 40s stands out.Life Rules , Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and The Mocking Spirit . And it is that during the war she contributed together with the special effects of the war drama One of Our Aircraft Is Missing , by the Emeric Pressburger – Michael Powell tandem, which led to her Oscar nomination; and in that film Lean was the editor. Neame would still have two other candidacies for the statuette, but in this case for his contribution to the scripts for Brief Encounter (1945) and Broken Chains (1946), splendid adaptations of the works of Noel Coward and Charles Dickens , directed by the aforementioned Lean . in broken chainsHe also had credit as a producer, which would also occur in the following Dickensian adaptation of Lean, Oliver Twist (1948) ; and it is that he was a partner with all rights of Cineguild, the company that produced the filmmaker’s films, where Anthony Havelock-Allan was also present . And from there he made his directorial debut in 1947 with the hard-fought Take My Life .

But arguments happen in even the best families, and a misunderstanding with Lean ended their fruitful collaboration. Producer J. Arthur Rank would ask Neame to study Hollywood ways of doing things, which would give rise to his American stage.

Passionate about technology, it is not surprising that in 1952 he produced The Magic Box , a biopic of William Friese-Greene, a British pioneer in cinema-related inventions, with whom he had the opportunity to work. In the United States he would still make literary titles such as The Millionaire , with Gregory Peck , who adapted Mark Twain , but without renouncing his British tastes, which can be seen in his work with Alec Guinness , such as A Genius Is Loose and Whiskey and glory .

It is clear that its most popular title is The Poseidon Adventure (1972), a milestone in the catastrophic subgenre, with that ship turned upside down, and the passengers and crew desperately seeking salvation. Legend has it that, a man of action, the same director climbed the ship’s Christmas tree, so that Shelley Winters would be encouraged to do the same at a certain point in the film; and the truth is that the actress would achieve an Oscar nomination. The attempt to repeat success with Meteor (1979) did not work, what was seen there was too stiff. More interesting was her previous film, Odessa (1974), a thriller based on the best-seller by Frederick Forsyth .

Regarding his personal life, Ronald Neame was married twice. He with Beryl Heanly, with whom he spent more than 40 years, until her divorce in 1973, and with whom he had a son, Christopher, who is a film producer; and Donna Friedberg, whom he married in 1993, and who survives him.