1. Yvon Jean Guillermin, known as John Guillermin, was an English film director, writer and producer.
41 Facts About John Guillermin
1. 2.
Yvon Jean John Guillermin was born in London on 11 November 1925.
3.
John Guillermin joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 at the age of 17, lying about his age.
4.
John Guillermin studied flying at Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona.
5.
John Guillermin wanted to be a director since he had seen Treasure Island at the cinema when he was seven.
6.
Together they made Bless 'Em All which John Guillermin helped produce; it was directed by Hill and featured Max Bygraves in his film debut.
7.
John Guillermin went to Hollywood in 1950 to study film-making methods.
8.
John Guillermin made several movies for the low-budget Vandyke Productions, a company run by Roger and Nigel Proudlock.
9.
Also for Vandyke John Guillermin directed Four Days, a thriller with Reynolds, and Song of Paris, a comedy with Dennis Price.
10.
John Guillermin received an offer from the short-lived Group 3 Films to make Miss Robin Hood, a comedy starring Margaret Rutherford.
11.
John Guillermin made episodes of the TV series Your Favorite Story.
12.
John Guillermin went to another low-budget outfit, Nettleford, to direct the thriller Operation Diplomat with Guy Rolfe.
13.
John Guillermin did The Crowded Day, a shop girl melodrama with John Gregson, which was an attempt by Adelphi to enter bigger budgeted filmmaking.
14.
The market for British B films was growing tighter due to competition from television; John Guillermin directed episodes of shows such as The Adventures of Aggie and Sailor of Fortune.
15.
John Guillermin returned to features with Thunderstorm, shot in Spain for British Lion starring Carlos Thompson.
16.
In between the two, John Guillermin directed The Whole Truth, a thriller produced by Jack Clayton with Stewart Granger, George Sanders and Donna Reed; it was distributed by Columbia.
17.
John Guillermin was hired by producer Sy Weintraub to help re-invigorate the Tarzan series.
18.
John Guillermin was hired by Independent Artists to make the crime thriller Never Let Go with Richard Todd and Peter Sellers; John Guillermin wrote the story.
19.
In between the two movies, John Guillermin directed Tarzan Goes to India, another popular Tarzan movie.
20.
The film, starring Richard Attenborough, was released by 20th Century Fox, whose head of production Darryl F Zanuck became a fan of Guillermin and signed him for two more films.
21.
John Guillermin returned to MGM with Skyjacked, a popular thriller with Charlton Heston.
22.
John Guillermin had a big hit with The Towering Inferno for producer Irwin Allen.
23.
John Guillermin was meant to make Hennessy but was replaced by Don Sharp.
24.
John Guillermin was meant to direct Midway but was replaced by Jack Smight.
25.
John Guillermin had been turned down by Steven Spielberg, Milos Forman, Roman Polanski and Sydney Pollack before going with Guillermin.
26.
John Guillermin received an offer to direct the all-star film Death on the Nile for EMI Films shot in Egypt.
27.
John Guillermin made the Canadian horror film Mr Patman.
28.
John Guillermin was replaced on Sahara by Andrew McLaglen.
29.
John Guillermin did his research, and he got sustained performances out of all of us.
30.
John Guillermin occasionally left the set halfway through a day's shooting to go sailing.
31.
John Guillermin became known as a pipe-smoking exacting perfectionist, filming and refilming scenes to get exactly what he wanted.
32.
Memoirs of actors, editors and producers indicate that John Guillermin was a difficult man to work with.
33.
When some members of the Czech crew were late for the first day of filming in 1968, John Guillermin screamed at them.
34.
John Guillermin was told by a crew member if he did this again, the entire crew would walk off the set.
35.
John Guillermin later told Wolper he could not set foot on the set one day because of the complexity of the filming.
36.
Twenty-three years after the film was released, John Guillermin called to compliment him on his work on King Kong.
37.
John Guillermin hit his stride at the end of the Fifties, just as a post-studio system style of filmmaking was arising with the French New Wave, Britain's Free Cinema, and so on.
38.
John Guillermin is something of a melancholic: In his coolly unflinching cinema, tired, traumatized men in desperate situations fight with dour determination for a few shreds of dignity.
39.
On 20 July 1956, John Guillermin married actress and author Maureen Connell.
40.
On 27 September 2015, John Guillermin died in Topanga, California, from a heart attack.
41.
John Guillermin attributed much of his famed bad temper to depression.