Karel Reisz

Born: 21st July 1926
Died: 25th November 2002

Karel Reisz, a seminal figure in postwar cinema best known for helming The French Lieutenant's Woman, died at the age of 76.

Born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, Reisz was orphaned at the age of 11 when his parents were taken to a concentration camp.

Reisz was smuggled to England and, as a teenager at a Quaker school in Reading, made 16mm movies. After graduating from Emmanual College, he spent the last two years of World War II in the Czech branch of the Royal Air Force.

During the '50s, he worked extensively in documentaries and advertising films. Reisz along with Tony Richardson directed the short Momma Don't Allow in 1956, and Reisz directed the widely praised 1959 docu We Are Lambeth Boys.

Reisz played a key role in championing the populist Free Cinema movement, along with Richardson and Lindsay Anderson, starting with his 1960 debut drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which introduced audiences to Albert Finney.

That was followed by a remake of thriller Night Must Fall, starring Finney; and the dark comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, which gave Vanessa Redgrave her first starring role.

His first U.S. film was The Gambler, starring James Caan, followed by Who'll Stop the Rain, with Nick Nolte.

He directed The French Lieutenant's Woman, which brought Meryl Streep an actress Oscar nomination in 1981, and Sweet Dreams, a biography of Patsy Cline, which did the same for Jessica Lange in 1985.

For the past decade, Reisz concentrated on directing plays in London, Dublin and Paris. In 2000, he helmed Act Without Words I, part of a series of Samuel Beckett plays for the BBC. His last film was Everybody Wins, starring Nolte and Debra Winger.

James Toback, who wrote the screenplay for The Gambler, said: "From the late 1950s through the middle 1980s, Karel was - within the serious international film community - one of only a handful of directors accepted everywhere with the highest regard.

"His films always had a look of both propriety and elegance. But it was as a superb director of actors - and a creator of stars - on which Karel's esteem rested."