Wikipedia

Michael Apted

"Apted" redirects here. For other people with this surname, see Apted (surname).

Michael David Apted CMG (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer.

Michael Apted
CMG
Apted in 2013
Born
Michael David Apted

(1941-02-10)10 February 1941
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
Died7 January 2021(2021-01-07) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationCity of London School
Downing College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Television and film director, producer
Years active1963–2019
Spouses
Jo Apted
​
(divorced)​
​
(divorced)​
Paige Simpson
​
(m. 2014)​
Children4, including Paul

Apted began working in television and directed the Up documentary series (1964–2019). He later directed Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), which was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. His subsequent work included Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Nell (1994), James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), and Enigma (2001). His film Amazing Grace (2006) premiered at the closing of the Toronto International Film Festival that year.[1]

On 29 June 2003, he was elected president of the Directors Guild of America,[2] a position he served until 2009.[3] He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[4]

Early life and education

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Apted was born on 10 February 1941 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the son of Frances Amelia (née Thomas) and Ronald William Apted.[5][6]

He was educated at City of London School and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied law and history.[7]

Career

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Television

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Apted began his career in television as a trainee for six months at Granada Television in Manchester, where he worked as a researcher. One of his first projects at Granada would become his best known: the Up series, which began in 1964 as a profile of 14 seven-year-old children for the current affairs series World in Action. As a researcher and assistant to Canadian director Paul Almond, Apted was involved in selecting the children, who came from a variety of backgrounds and classes.[8] Though originally conceived as a one-off documentary, the series has become an institution. When it was suggested that they revisit the subjects at ages fourteen and twenty one, Apted accepted the offer to direct and directed every subsequent episode in the series.[8] It explores Apted's thesis that the British class system remains largely in place. It studies the participants based on the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man",[9] looking at how they develop during their lives, compared to when they were seven. The series looks at the lives of these people over the years; the latest instalment, 63 Up, was produced in 2019.[10][11] It won a Peabody Award in 2012 "for its creator’s patience and its subjects' humanity."[12]

During his seven-year period of working at Granada, Apted also directed a number of episodes of Coronation Street,[13] then written by Jack Rosenthal, among others. Apted and Rosenthal later collaborated on a number of popular television and film projects, including the pilot episodes for The Dustbinmen[14] and The Lovers.[15] They worked together again in 1982 for the TV movie P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang,[16] the first film commissioned by Britain's Channel 4. In 1976 Apted directed a play in the Granada TV series Laurence Olivier Presents. The episode was The Collection by Harold Pinter. The play starred Laurence Olivier, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates and Helen Mirren.[17]

Apted used his idea from the Up series a second time in Married in America and Married in America 2. The idea was to interview nine married couples every two years over a ten-year period to tell a more complete story of their marriages.[18] In 2005, he directed the first three episodes of the TV series Rome.[19]

For his work in television, Apted won several British Academy Awards, including two Flaherty Documentary Awards for his work on 28 Up and 35 Up and a BAFTA for Best Dramatic Director for the single play Kisses at Fifty in 1974.[20]

 
Michael Apted in 2007

Film

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Apted made his first feature film in 1972, The Triple Echo, starring Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, and he directed two films for David Puttnam. The Triple Echo was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.[21] He alternated this work with working on the TV series Play for Today. He directed six plays including Stronger than the Sun, written by Stephen Poliakoff and starring Francesca Annis as a young woman who places her life in danger to expose a crime, a theme Apted returned to several times.[22][13]

In 1979 he directed the Hollywood-financed Agatha, featuring Vanessa Redgrave.[23] He went to the United States in 1980, where he directed Coal Miner's Daughter,[24] which received seven Academy Award nominations, winning best actress for Sissy Spacek.[25] Both Spacek and Loretta Lynn, the subject of the film, have said that they believe Apted's outsider point of view was crucial to the movie's success in securing the participation of Appalachian residents and to the avoidance of stereotypes that previously had marred portrayals of mountain culture.[26][27] In 2019, Coal Miner's Daughter was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[28]

Apted also made several films with a strong social message or that deal with an ethical dilemma. In 1983 he directed Gorky Park, a political thriller based on the novel by Martin Cruz Smith, that deals with police corruption in the former Soviet Union.[29] Class Action deals with a corporate whistleblower,[30] and Extreme Measures is about medical ethics.[31] Class Action was entered into the 17th Moscow International Film Festival.[32]

In 1994, he directed Nell, which received three Golden Globe Award nominations[33] and one Academy Award nomination.[34]

In 1999, Apted directed the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.[35]

Documentary

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In addition to the Up series, Apted made other documentaries, including Bring On the Night, a feature-length concert film about the making of Sting's first solo album.[36] He directed the documentary The Long Way Home, which was released in 1989. It chronicled the UK, US and USSR adventures of Boris Grebenshchikov, the first Soviet underground musician allowed to record in the West.[37]

Before the making of Thunderheart, Apted made the documentary Incident at Oglala about Leonard Peltier. Incident at Oglala then informed Thunderheart in the casting of actors for the fiction film.[38]

In 1997, he explored the creative process in Inspirations through candid discussion with seven artists from diverse media, including David Bowie, Louise Lecavalier and Roy Lichtenstein among others.[39]

In a departure from his earlier work, from 1992 to 1994, Apted ventured into China's rapidly changing popular culture. In a project backed by Trudie Styler, Apted directed Moving the Mountain, a feature documentary which probed the origins of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and the consequences of the movement in the lives of several of the movement's student leaders.[40]

In 2006, Apted co-directed The Official Film of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, narrated by Pierce Brosnan.[41]

Apted was the collaborator and subject of the documentary: Michael Apted – Visions on Film, by artist and filmmaker Melinda Camber Porter.[42]

Theatre

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In 1977, Apted directed the premiere of Strawberry Fields at the National Theatre in London.

Filmography

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Film

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Documentary film

Year Title Director Producer Writer
1985 Bring On the Night Yes No Yes
1992 Incident at Oglala Yes No No
1994 Moving the Mountain Yes No Yes
1997 Inspirations Yes Yes No
1999 Me & Isaac Newton Yes No No
2007 The Power of the Game Yes No No
2012 56 Up Yes Yes No
2014 Bending the Light Yes Executive No

Television

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Year Title Director Producer Notes Ref.
1966-1967 Coronation Street Yes No 21 episodes [44][13]
1967 Escape Yes No Episode "A Bad Risk"
Haunted Yes No [45]
1967-1968 City '68 Yes No 5 episodes
1968-1972 Playhouse Yes No 11 episodes [46] [47][48]
1969 Big Breadwinner Hog Yes No 2 episodes [49]
Parkin's Patch Yes No 8 episodes [13]
1970 The Sinners Yes No Episode "Mother Matilda's Book"
The Lovers Yes No 6 episodes [47]
1971-1972 ITV Saturday Night Theatre Yes No Episodes "Another Sunday and Sweet F.A." and "Big Soft Nellie" [50] [51]
Follyfoot Yes No 2 episodes
1972 Thirty-Minute Theatre Yes No Episode "Said the Preacher"
1972-1976 Play for Today Yes No 6 episodes [13]
1973 Black and Blue Yes No Segment High Kampf
1975 Shades of Greene Yes No Episode "The Destructors" [52]
1976 Great Performances Yes No Episode "The Collection"  [53]
Plays for Britain Yes No Episode "Paradise Run"
1982-1985 First Love Yes No  
1991 My Life and Times  Yes No 2 episodes [13]
1992-1993 Crossroads Yes Executive [54][55]
1995 New York News Yes No Episode "Pilot" [13]
2005 Blind Justice Yes No Episode "Leap of Faith"
Rome Yes Consulting 3 episodes (Including "The Stolen Eagle") [13]
2006 What About Brian Yes No Episode "What About the Fish...?"
2013-2016 Ray Donovan Yes No 2 episodes
Masters of Sex Yes Yes 9 episodes
2014 Reckless Yes No Episode "Bloodstone" [56]
2017 Bloodline Yes No "Part 30"  [57]

TV movies

Documentary film

Up series
Year Title Director Producer
1970 7 Plus Seven Yes Yes
1977 21 Up Yes Yes
1984 28 Up Yes Yes
1991 35 Up Yes Yes
Age 7 in America No Executive
1998 14 Up in America No Executive
42 Up Yes Yes
2005 49 Up Yes Yes
2006 21 Up America No Executive

Other roles

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He served as president of the Directors Guild of America from 2003 to 2009 and served as the secretary-treasurer from 2011 to his death.[3]

Personal life and death

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Apted's first marriage was to Jo, with whom he had two sons, Paul and Jim. Paul Apted was a sound editor who worked on movies such as The Wolverine; he died from colon cancer in 2014.[61]

He was married to screenwriter Dana Stevens for 10 years, before they divorced. They had a son, John.[62]

In 2007 Apted became a father for the fourth time, to a girl, who lives with her mother Tania Mellis.[63]

Apted married Paige Simpson, his third wife, in January 2014.[63]

Apted died at his home in Los Angeles on 7 January 2021, at the age of 79.[6][64][65]

References

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  1. ^ Kumar, Matthew (22 August 2006). "Toronto International Film Festival 2006: Everything Announced". Torontoist. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  2. ^ "Michael Apted Elected DGA President; New National Board, Slate of Officers Also Chosen" (Press release). Directors Guild of America. Business Wire. 29 June 2003. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Michael Apted (1941-2021) - Visual History Interview". Directors Guild of America. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  4. ^ "No. 58729". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2008. p. 2.
  5. ^ "Michael Apted Biography (1941-)". filmreference.com.
  6. ^ a b Genzlinger, Neil (8 January 2021). "Michael Apted, Versatile Director Known for 'Up' Series, Dies at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Michael Apted, Coal Miner's Daughter and Up series director, dies at 79". Entertainment Weekly. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  8. ^ a b Pedersen, Susan (2 November 2020). "A Thing or Two About Life". The Nation. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  9. ^ Weeratunga, Jann. ""Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man." – The Schools Reading Road Show". Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  10. ^ Haddou, Jihane (8 January 2021). "Give Me the Child Until He Is Seven and I Will Give You the Man". Medium. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  11. ^ "Michael Apted, Director Of The 'Up' Documentary Series, Dies At 79". NPR. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  12. ^ Annual Peabody Awards Archived 9 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine, May 2013.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h "Michael Apted". TV.com. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  14. ^ "The Dustbinmen: There's a Hole in Your Dustbin, Delilah". TV.com. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  15. ^ Duguid, Mark. "Lovers, The (1970–71)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  16. ^ "P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang. (1982)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 1 July 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Michael Apted, Director of 'Coal Miner's Daughter' and 'Up' Series of Documentaries, Dies at 79". Variety. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  18. ^ "Keeping a watchful eye on love, commitment / Michael Apted's 'Married in America' to trace nine couples over 10 years". San Francisco Chronicle. 16 June 2002. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  19. ^ The three first episodes were:
  20. ^ "BAFTA Awards". BAFTA. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  21. ^ a b "8th Moscow International Film Festival (1973)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  22. ^ "Stronger than the Sun (1977)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 3 January 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  23. ^ Agatha (1979) – Michael Apted | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie, retrieved 9 January 2021
  24. ^ a b c "Michael Apted". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  25. ^ "The 53rd Academy Awards | 1981". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  26. ^ Sissy Spacek and Michael Apted. Feature commentary track, Coal Miner's Daughter 25th Anniversary/Collector's Edition, 2005.
  27. ^ Interview with Loretta Lynn and Michael Apted. Featurette on Coal Miner's Daughter 25th Anniversary/Collector's Edition DVD, 2005.
  28. ^ Chow, Andrew R. (11 December 2019). "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks". Time. New York, NY. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  29. ^ Gorky Park (1983) – Michael Apted | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie, retrieved 9 January 2021
  30. ^ Class Action (1991) – Michael Apted | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie, retrieved 9 January 2021
  31. ^ "Extreme Measures". Radio Times. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  32. ^ "17th Moscow International Film Festival (1991)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  33. ^ "Nell". Golden Globes Awards. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  34. ^ "The 67th Academy Awards | 1995". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  35. ^ "James Bond and 7-Up director Michael Apted dies age 79". Radio Times. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  36. ^ Maslin, Janet (8 November 1985). "Screen: Sting in 'Bring on the Night'". The New York Times. p. C12. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  37. ^ Ellis, Lucy (16 December 2009). Annie Lennox: The Biography. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857121141.
  38. ^ ."Incident at Ogala: The Leonard Peltier Story". Rolling Stone. 26 June 1992. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  39. ^ "Inspirations". DVDTalk.com. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  40. ^ Maslin, Janet (26 April 1995). "Film Review:Moving the Mountain: Upheaval in China". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  41. ^ "Film producer lists at Byron". The Sunday Telegraph. Sydney. 29 April 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  42. ^ "Michael Apted, English director". MelindaCamberPorter.com. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  43. ^ Amazing Grace (2007). Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved 9 January 2021
  44. ^ "'Up' documentary maker Michael Apted dies at 79". Reuters. 9 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  45. ^ "Michael Apted, director of James Bond, Narnia & more, passes away at 79". Syfy.com. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  46. ^ "There's a Hole in Your Dustbin, Delilah". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  47. ^ a b "Jack Rosenthal at ITV". Britishdrama.or.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  48. ^ "Your Name's Not God, It's Edgar (1968)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  49. ^ "Big Breadwinner Hog". Television Heaven. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  50. ^ "Another Sunday and Sweet F.A. (1972)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  51. ^ "Another Sunday and Sweet F.A. (1972)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  52. ^ "The Destructors (1975)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  53. ^ "The Collection (1976)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  54. ^ "Crossroads C.C. Riders [Pilot] (1992)". Archived from the original on 17 May 2019.
  55. ^ "Fall 1992 Preview:Saturday", Entertainment Weekly, retrieved 9 January 2021
  56. ^ Reckless. Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved 9 January 2021
  57. ^ Tallerico, Brian (30 May 2017). "Bloodline Recap: Hard Truths". Vulture. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  58. ^ Always Outnumbered (1998). Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved 9 January 2021
  59. ^ "The Futon's First Look: "Hallelujah" (ABC)". The Futon Critic. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  60. ^ Hart, Hugh (16 June 2002). "Keeping a watchful eye on love, commitment / Michael Apted's 'Married in America' to trace nine couples over 10 years". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  61. ^ Hayden, Erik; Barnes, Mike (5 July 2014). "Paul Apted, Sound Editor and Son of Director Michael Apted, Dies at 47". The Hollywood Reporter.
  62. ^ "Filmmaker Dana Stevens Balances Motherhood, Movie-Making & Her New CBS Show Reckless". Tinseltown Mom. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  63. ^ a b Dagan, Carmel (8 January 2021). "Michael Apted, Director of 'Coal Miner's Daughter' and 'Up' Series of Documentaries, Dies at 79". Variety. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  64. ^ Welk, Brian (8 January 2021). "Michael Apted, Director of 'Up' Documentaries and 'Coal Miner's Daughter,' Dies at 79". The Wrap. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  65. ^ D'Zurilla, Christie (8 January 2021). "Michael Apted, '7 Up' director and three-time DGA president, dies at 79". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
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