Schlesinger, John

Schlesinger was born in London into a Jewish family. He went on to work in television as an actor after graduating from Uppingham School and Balliol College, Oxford.

One of his first films, the documentary Terminus (1960) earned him a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. Schlesinger's movies covered a range of subjects and reflect his personal interest, for example:A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963) were concerned with the life of characters based in the North of England: Darling (1965) described tartly the modern urban way of life in London and was one of the first films about swinging London: Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's popular novel; and Yanks (1979) is a love story set to the back drop of war.

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