 Founder and chief executive officer of Goldcrest Films, the company that brought most prestige to British films in the 1980s, with such Oscar triumphs as Chariots of Fire (d. Hugh Hudson, 1981) and Gandhi (UK/India, d. Richard Attenborough, 1982). A graduate of Harvard Business School with no particular interest in film until he became involved in raising money for the animated film version of Watership Down (d. Martin Rosen, 1978), he became engrossed in the development of projects by major film-makers. This latter was important to him: he cannot be said to have promoted the careers of unknowns, but under his leadership such film-makers as Richard Attenborough, David Puttnam and John Boorman received the kind of support from Goldcrest that is not common in post-studio decades. He resigned from Goldcrest in 1984 but returned in late 1985 at the invitation of its board to try (vainly) to rescue it financially, and resigned again in 1987. He has since worked for Allied Filmmakers, functioning as producer or executive producer on some of its films. In 1990, he co-authored (with Terry Ilott), My Indecision Is Final, an absorbing account of his Goldcrest years, emerging as a man of probity, with a taste for quality film production. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
