Anthony Asquith

Anthony Asquith (/ˈæskwɪθ/; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was a leading English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Browning Version (1951), among other adaptations. His other notable films include Pygmalion (1938), French Without Tears (1940), The Way to the Stars (1945) and a 1952 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

The Honourable

Anthony Asquith
Walter J. Turner, Asquith, Charles Percy Sanger and Mark Gertler, in a photo taken by Lady Ottoline Morrell
Born9 November 1902
London, England, UK
Died20 February 1968(1968-02-20) (aged 65)
London, England, UK
OccupationFilm director
Years active1927–1964
Parent(s)

Life and career

Born in London, he was the son of H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, and Margot Asquith, who was responsible for 'Puffin' as his family nickname.[1] He was educated at Eaton House,[2] Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford.

The film industry was viewed as disreputable when Asquith was young, and according to the actor Jonathan Cecil, a family friend, Asquith entered this profession in order to escape his background.[3] At the end of the 1920s, he began his career with the direction of four silent films, the last of which, A Cottage on Dartmoor, established his reputation with its meticulous and often emotionally moving frame composition.[1] Pygmalion (1938) was based on the George Bernard Shaw play featuring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller.

Asquith was a longtime friend and colleague of Terence Rattigan (they collaborated on ten films) and producer Anatole de Grunwald. His later films included Rattigan's The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Browning Version (1951), and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).

Asquith was an alcoholic and, according to actor Jonathan Cecil, a repressed homosexual. He died in 1968.[3] He was buried at All Saints Churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Vale of White Horse District, Oxfordshire, England.

Filmography

Feature films

Short films
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References
  1. Anthony Asquith biography at BFI Screenonline
  2. "Mr T.S. Morton". The Times. 23 January 1962.
  3. Geoffrey Macnab "The Asquith version", The Guardian, 6 February 2003
  4. See also advertisement for its premiere in The Times, 14 December 1935, p. 11.
Trade union offices
Preceded by
New position		 President of the Association of Cinematograph Technicians
1937–1968		 Succeeded by
George Elvin
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