Bryant Haliday (April 7, 1928July 28, 1996) was an American actor, as well as producer, of film and stage, who was instrumental in providing a showcase for international film titles in the United States by co-founding

Janus Films Janus Films is an American film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstei ...

with his partner

Cyrus Harvey, Jr. Cyrus Isadore Harvey Jr. (October 14, 1925 – April 14, 2011) was an American film distributor and business entrepreneur, he was the co-founder of Janus Films in 1956, and part-owner of the Brattle Theatre with his longtime business partner film ...

Early life and theatre

He entered

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

to study law. Haliday was an actor and founding member of the Brattle Theatre Company (BTC) based at the

Brattle Theatre The Brattle Theatre is a repertory movie theater located in Brattle Hall at 40 Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theatre is a small movie house with one screen. It is one of the few remaining movie theaters, if ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

; the BTC was an American version of England's

The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit organization, not-for-profit producing house, producing theatre in Waterloo, London, Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Th ...

. Haliday produced and acted in many of the productions there. In 1948, he purchased the theatre. The BTC dissolved in 1952, and the theater became a movie house. In 1966, Haliday sold the theater to Bramont Trust. Cyrus Harvey, Jr. continued to manage it into the 1970s.

Janus Films

Janus Films was founded in 1956 by Haliday and Harvey. Haliday ran the 55th Street Playhouse in New York and used it as a primary location for exhibiting Janus-distributed films, which included the films of

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

and

Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...

Horror films

By the 1960s, Halliday was wealthy enough to look on acting as a hobby, and was able to satisfy his interest in horror films by traveling to England to appear in

Lindsay Shonteff Lindsay Craig Shonteff (5 November 1935 – 11 March 2006) was a Canadian born film director, film producer and screenwriter who achieved fame for low-budget films produced in the United Kingdom. Biography Lindsay Shonteff was born in Toronto ...

's '' Devil Doll'' (1964) and ''

Curse of Simba ''Curse of Simba'', also known as ''Voodoo Blood Death'', is a black-and-white 1965 British-American supernatural horror film set in Africa, but filmed in England in 18 days. Its producer was Kenneth Rive and it was directed by Lindsay Shonteff. ...

'' (1964). He would later return to England to appear in ''

The Projected Man ''The Projected Man'' is a 1966 British science fiction film directed by Ian Curteis, written by Peter Bryan, John C. Cooper, and Frank Quattrocchi, and starring Bryant Haliday, Mary Peach, Norman Wooland, Ronald Allen, and Derek Farr. It wa ...

'' (1966), and ''

Tower of Evil ''Tower of Evil'', also known by the titles ''Horror on Snape Island'' and ''Beyond the Fog'', is a 1972 British horror film directed by Jim O'Connolly. Plot The movie opens with a boat cruising through heavy fog, on a spooky night. The boat ...

'' (1971). All were produced by his friend and fellow New Yorker Richard Gordon.

Later life and death

By the mid–1970s, Haliday was semi-retired and living in France, where he spent the last few years of his life producing and appearing in French television and theatre roles. He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1996.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haliday, Bryant 1928 births 1996 deaths Harvard Law School alumni American male film actors American theatre managers and producers 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American businesspeople American expatriates in France