Nicolas Roeg

Born: August 15 1928

Where: London, UK

The acclaimed director cut his teeth as a cinematographer before making his name with movies like Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Bad Timing.

Roeg started out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and worked his way up to become cinematographer 12 years later.

He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and with Roger Corman's Masque of the Red Death two years later.

He went on to frame films for such distinguished directors as François Truffaut (Fahrenheit 451)and John Schlesinger (Far From the Madding Crowd).

Together with Donald Cammell, he made a groundbreaking directorial debut in 1968 with Mick Jagger in Performance.

Warner Brothers were horrified when they saw the complex tale of sex and violence and delayed release for two years.

Roeg journeyed to Australia for his solo debut as director - Walkabout - and began a roll that would last until the early 80s.

Don't Look Now starred Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a couple mourning the death of their child in an eerie Venice.

David Bowie delivered his most accomplished big screen peformance as an alien in The Man Who Fell To Earth.

In 1980, Theresa Russell, who he later married, played the lead in Bad Timing and was subsequently cast as the female lead in all Roeg's films.

Subsequent releases included the poorly received Castaway and an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches.

However, after the earlier artistic high, the release of both Eureka and Cold Heaven was severely restricted due to problems with the films' distributors.

In recent yearsm hsi work has included the thriller Two Deaths with Sonia Braga.