15 Facts About Tony Richardson

1.

Cecil Antonio Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades.

2.

Tony Richardson was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Tony Richardson, a chemist.

3.

Tony Richardson was Head Boy at Ashville College, Harrogate and attended Wadham College, University of Oxford.

4.

Tony Richardson had the unprecedented distinction of being the President of both the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club, in addition to being the theatre critic for the university magazine Isis.

5.

In 1955, in his directing debut, Tony Richardson produced Jean Giraudoux's The Apollo of Bellac for television with Denholm Elliott and Natasha Parry in the main roles.

6.

Tony Richardson directed John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court Theatre, and in the same period he directed Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon.

7.

In 1959, Tony Richardson co-founded Woodfall Film Productions with John Osborne and producer Harry Saltzman, and, as Woodfall's debut, directed the film version of Look Back in Anger, his first feature film.

8.

In 1964, Tony Richardson received two Academy Awards for Tom Jones based on the novel by Henry Fielding.

9.

Tony Richardson's screenwriters were Jean Genet, Christopher Isherwood, Terry Southern, Marguerite Duras, Edward Bond and Edward Albee.

10.

In 1970, Tony Richardson was set to direct a film about Vaslav Nijinsky with a script by Edward Albee.

11.

Tony Richardson wrote and directed the comedy-drama The Hotel New Hampshire, based on John Irving's novel of the same name and starring Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges and Rob Lowe.

12.

In 1966, Tony Richardson is alleged to have financed the escape from Wormwood Scrubs prison of the spy and double agent George Blake.

13.

Tony Richardson was married to English actress Vanessa Redgrave from 1962 to 1967.

14.

Tony Richardson was bisexual, but never acknowledged it publicly until after he contracted HIV.

15.

Tony Richardson died of complications from AIDS on 14 November 1991 at the age of 63.