Donald Seton Cammell was a Scottish painter, screenwriter, and film director.
19 Facts About Donald Cammell
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Donald Cammell has a cult reputation largely due to his debut film Performance, which he wrote the screenplay for and co-directed with Nicolas Roeg.
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Donald Cammell died by suicide after the last film he directed, Wild Side, was taken away from him and recut by the production company.
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Donald Seton Cammell was born 17 January 1934 in the Outlook Tower on Castlehill, on the approach to Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.
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Donald Cammell was the elder son of the poet and writer Charles Richard Cammell and Iona Macdonald.
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Donald Cammell was educated at Shrewsbury House School and Westminster School.
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Charles Richard Donald Cammell had known Crowley personally and was an admirer of the magus, particularly of his poetry.
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Donald Cammell was a precociously gifted painter, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy at the age of 16.
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Donald Cammell subsequently studied in Florence with Annigoni and made his living as a society portrait painter.
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In 1961, Donald Cammell moved to Paris and began writing screenplays; first, a thriller called The Touchables, then a collaboration with Harry Joe Brown Jr.
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In 1978, Brando invited Donald Cammell to collaborate on a script called Fan Tan which Brando soon lost interest in; then he asked Donald Cammell to adapt the script as a novel and again scuttled the project halfway through by losing interest.
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The next project Donald Cammell managed to get made was a short called The Argument that was shot on location in the Utah desert by Vilmos Zsigmond on the sly in 1971.
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Donald Cammell had obtained the camera on the grounds that Zsigmond was shooting tests for another film.
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Donald Cammell had to wait until 1987 to complete another project, White of the Eye.
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Donald Cammell's final film Wild Side was a troubled production.
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Ultimately, they took over the film, abandoning Donald Cammell's cut and re-cutting the film to eliminate his innovative cross-cutting to create a more linear narrative, and inserting more nudity.
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Donald Cammell's brother said after his brother's suicide that the production company's interference made him consider retaliating with violence.
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Donald Cammell is survived by his son and his second wife.
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Donald Cammell took 45 minutes to die, during which time he talked about his movie Performance with his wife, China Kong, asking her to provide him with a mirror so he could witness his own death.