John Badham

Born: 25th August 1939
Where: Luton, England

Badham has directed many hit features of the 1980s and 90s after making a name for himself in 70s television.

Badham's witty and popular film, Short Circuit, was a big hit in the 80s.

Trained in directing the classics at the Yale School of Drama, Badham was inspired to go to Hollywood when his younger sister, Mary, received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

He worked his way up from the Universal Studios mailroom to become an assistant to veteran producer William Sackheim. Badham's first associate producer credit appeared on the omnibus TV-movie, Night Gallery, on which he also served as assistant director to filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

Badham became a full-fledged TV director when he won an Emmy nomination for his work on an episode of the series, The Senator.

Badham's most celebrated TV work was the Emmy award-winning TV movie, The Law.

Badham graduated to the big screen when Spielberg, enjoying the success of Jaws, decided not to direct a period baseball comedy involving. So Badham was hired to direct The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings starring James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor.

He achieved his major breakthrough with Saturday Night Fever, then directed a string of star movies in the late 80s and early 90s like Stakeout, Bird on a Wire, The Assassin, Drop Zone and Incognito.