Fred Schepisi

Born: December 26 1939
Where: Melbourne, Australia

The director - a pioneer of Australia's 1970s New Wave - received international recognition for the drama A Cry in The Dark in 1988.

The film, starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill, told the story of a mother who claimed she saw a dingo steal her baby.

The movie saw Schepisi voted Best Director by the Australian Film Institute while Streep was best actress at Cannes and nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe.

Schepisi began in advertising, rising from messenger boy to head of the The Film House, a production firm known for its innovative commercials and documentaries.

His first solo project was the half-hour The Priest for the four-part Libido, but he established his reputation as a director with The Devil's Playground.

Hollywood took note after The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, an unflinching story about a half-caste Aborigine who goes on a killing spree.

He did preparation work on Raggedy Man but made his American debut instead with the Western Barbarosa, which won acclaim for its original treatment of Western myths.

Next up was the 1984's underrated Iceman and Plenty, an adaptation of David Hare's play, starring Streep and Charles Dance.

Schepisi scored a hit with his Cyrano De Bergerac adaptation Roxanne with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah and then returned to Australia to make A Cry in the Dark.

He followed that success with the Sean Connery thriller The Russia House and John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, which earned Stockard Channing an Oscar nod.

In 1994 he made the romantic comedy IQ with Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan but was on less firm ground with the John Cleese-scripted Fierce Creatures.

Last Orders, starring Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins, went some way towards a return to form but the Douglas dynasty drama It Runs in the Family proved uninspiring.