Jack Clayton British director Date of Birth: 01.03.1921 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Jack Clayton

Jack Clayton was born in 1921 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. As a teenager, he began working for director Sir Alexander Korda at the Denham Studios. During World War II, Clayton joined the Royal Air Force, one of the most elite branches of the British military. It was during this time that he directed his first film, "Naples is a Battlefield," which depicted the fate and struggles of the war-torn city of Naples.

After returning home, Clayton continued to work with Alexander Korda and also started making his own films. In 1956, his film "The Bespoke Overcoat" won an Academy Award. The plot of the film was based on Nikolai Gogol's short story, "The Overcoat." Clayton's international breakthrough came with the film "Room at the Top" in 1959, which won two Oscars. This film was one of the first of the "British New Wave" movement.

In 1961, Clayton released "The Innocents," although it did not receive the same level of popularity as his previous film. Many of Clayton's films were adaptations of literary works. In 1974, he directed "The Great Gatsby," based on Francis Scott Fitzgerald's novel, but the film did not achieve success. Clayton then took a creative hiatus for nine years.

In 1983, he returned to filmmaking with the adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel, "Something Wicked This Way Comes," which was warmly received by both audiences and critics. One of Clayton's last works was the 1987 film "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne," starring Maggie Smith. His final film, "Memento Mori," was released in 1992 but did not gain popularity.

Clayton was married three times, but he spent the majority of his life with Israeli actress Haya Harareet, even converting to her religion.