Multiple sources are reporting that British director Michael Apted has died. Boasting a genre-spanning body of work that included biopics about Loretta Lynn and Dian Fossey, comedies starring John Belushi and Richard Pryor, a James Bond film, and a C.S. Lewis adaptation, Apted also directed all but one installment in the groundbreaking Up series of documentaries. No cause of death has been given. He was 79.
Apted began his career in the 1960s, with Granada Television. Working as a researcher for the broadcaster, he gathered the school-age subjects for an episode of the current affairs program World In Action. That 1964 documentary, Seven Up!, depicted the lives of 14 seven-year-olds representing various British social classes; in 1970, those same children were profiled in a follow-up, 7 Plus Seven, this time directed by Apted. And so it was every seven years afterward, each subsequent Up entry charting the trajectories of these eventually not-so-young people, and adding more facets to a staggering, one-of-a-kind nonfiction project.
During his time with Granada, Apted entered into the realm of fictional filmmaking, helming episodes of series that included another long-running British institution: the soap opera Coronation Street. His feature directorial debut, the World War II drama The Triple Echo, arrived two years after 7 Plus Seven, and he’d alternate between efforts for the big and small screens for the remainder of the ’70s. In 1980, his eye for true stories and social issues turned toward the biography of country star Loretta Lynn. Directed by Apted, the film version of Coal Miner’s Daughter was critically acclaimed and a box-office smash, earning a Best Picture nomination at the 53rd Academy Awards, where star Sissy Spacek won the Oscar for Best Actress. Recalling her experience with Apted in a 2012 interview, Spacek told The A.V. Club “[W]hat he did as a director, he created an atmosphere in which people were free. And it was very relaxed and very natural.” Coal Miner’s Daughter was added to the National Film Registry in 2019.
Apted followed Coal Miner’s Daughter with John Belushi’s lone romantic comedy outing, Continental Divide, and the Soviet Union-set thriller Gorky Park. Elected president of the Directors Guild of America for the first of three terms in 2003, he leaves behind a prolific and eclectic filmography: Richard Pryor as a con man posing as a surgeon in Critical Condition; Pierce Brosnan as 007 in The World Is Not Enough; the conclusion of the mid-’00s/early-’10s Chronicles Of Narnia trilogy, Voyage Of The Dawn Treader; multiple episodes of the HBO historical epic Rome and Showtime’s post-Mad Men spin on Masters and Johnson, Masters Of Sex. Apted directed Sigourney Weaver and Jodie Foster to Best Actress Oscar nominations in Gorillas In The Mist and Nell, respectively, and was honored with BAFTA Awards for his own work on 28 Up and 35 Up.
For over 50 years, some Up participants came and went, the series’ focus expanded to cover forces shaping their lives beyond the class system, and the films grew from a primetime one-off to an internationally celebrated chronicle of the ordinary. Through it all, Apted was the constant. He was still behind the camera for 2019’s 63 Up, and while promoting the documentary, expressed his desire to remain there. As he told On The Media, “I hope to do 84 Up when I’ll be 99.”
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RIPAlso the director of Thunderheart.
Yes. I was about to point this out. Thunderheart is a great film, a nice non-Tony Hillerman caper for Tony Hillerman readers.
Oddly enough I was wondering relatively recently why Hillerman’s detective duo series hasn’t been made into five or six movies by now.
Me, too. It would not have to be that expensive, just lots of driving around the Navajo Reservation. I think that the SW in general is more of interest as a shooting location after Breaking Bad. Even better that with a lower budget, they could go with a cast of unknown Native American actors and launch some careers. I personally do not need another Poirot.
There are 18 books in the series (by him— apparently his daughter wrote some more); it turns out there actually were movies / tv movies made of 4 of them (seemingly all unrelated to each other except for the source material), with some names in ‘em (Lou Diamond Phillips in one, Wes Studi in another), but I guess didn’t do well enough financially.But it seems like something HBO or Showtime or one of them should jump all over for a prestige series, if a feature film won’t do it.
I remember existing, but did not see, the Lou Diamond Phillips one. A lot of content with their personal lives carries forward through the novels, so I would like to see them done in order. I would also love to see David Lynch direct.
He didn’t get his wish of dying before any of the Up subjects, but at least it was only one.
I always liked ‘ Continental Divide’. It showed what a fine actor John Belushi ( and Blair Brown) was when he wasn’t doing comedy shtick mugging. Such a loss. RI P.
Fun fact, Belushi’s character in that movie, Ernie Souchak, was supposedly loosely based on real Chicago reporter Mike Royko, who was a family friend of the Belushis. Reportly, Royko himself wasn’t amused.
It seemed like it was critically bashed, but I always liked it too.
Such a bummer. I haven’t yet seen 63 Up, will have to remedy that shortly.
I didn’t realize 63 Up had already been released; I look forward to finally watching it. It’s an incredible series of films and I’m thankful that he made them.
I hope that the series is continued by other directors until all the participants are dead. It really is a powerful series of documentaries showing how people change over time.
The latest is very good and quite moving. Have the kleenex handy.
I haven’t seen 63 Up yet either. To prepare, my wife and I (who had seen them) were watching the series with my mother-in-law (who hadn’t) every time she came to visit. We got as far as 28 Up, and obviously that’s been on hold for a while, but it was a treat to remember how wonderful that series is.
Is the series available for streaming anywhere? I’ve only seen 3 of the installments, and would love to binge the whole thing.
All except 63 are on Britbox.
Gorky Park was a great movie (based on a good novel). I had relatives in Eastern European countries at the time, and it captured the decaying Soviet system of the 1980s where people really no longer believed in the ideology but are just going through the motions because they don’t know what else to do.
79 Down
A truly fine director who successfully worked in most styles and genres, but no obit so far seems to have mentioned The Squeeze, a very grimy and nasty British crime thriller, made in 1977, and with a terrific cast including Stacy Keach, Steven Boyd, David Hemmings and Carol White. One of those seemingly forgotten films which really deserves rediscovery. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076755/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4RIP Mr. Apted.
His legacy is way beyond it, but there sure are a lot of Bond associates going down lately.
Well clearly the standout in that resume is Coronation Street.
what a career. RIP king.
Up series is most probably the best and most important thing committed on film. A monumental achievement. Having seen every single film that matters in the history of cinema, i feel that Up is the most powerful of them all. RIP Mr.Apted.
Coal Miner’s Daughter is a beautifully acted and put together film which takes a stripped back approach to what could have easily been a phony, glossy tale. The film has a quiet ache to it – we never forget where Loretta Lynn has come from or the toll it took to get where she was, yet this isn’t done in a “weepie” kind of way. It’s a film which manages to seem honest, whether it really was or not, and is a world away from so many films of this ilk, like that JD Vance thing, which make people from coal country or the hills or what have you seem like a freak show.
The World is Not Enough is underrated. At the very least, Sophie Marceau and Robert Carlyle are good villains.
One of the inventors of reality TV AND a Bond film director. How many men can say that?
He also directed the great, under-appreciated Always Outnumbered.That’s a movie that I saw ~30 years ago, and I still remember certain scenes and certain lines.
I forget which Up it was, but on release both he and Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show were watching one of the interviewees. The fellow in question was being grilled about all of his failures and he was confused. “You wanted to be a jockey.” “I was a jockey.” “Yes, but you failed.” (confusion) “But I was a jockey…” Repeat for every single life choice he’d made… You wanted to be [thing]. I was [thing]. Yes but you failed. But I was [thing]. When the camera cut back, Gumbel said something like “He just doesn’t get it, does he?” and then they had a laugh at his expense. All I could think was… nah, you two idiots don’t get it.
Blink. Respect.