Richard Marquand
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Richard Marquand
OR:
Richard Marquand on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Richard Alfred Marquand (22 September 1937 – 4 September 1987) was a British film and television director active in both US and UK film productions, best known for directing 1983's ''
Return of the Jedi ''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who ...
''. He also directed the critically acclaimed 1981 drama film '' Eye of the Needle'', the quiet Paris set romance ''
Until September ''Until September'' is a 1984 romantic drama film directed by Richard Marquand and starring Karen Allen and Thierry Lhermitte. The plot concerns an American tourist and a French banker who fall in love in Paris. Plot Moe Alexander (Karen Allen) i ...
'', and the hit 1985 thriller '' Jagged Edge''.


Early life

Marquand was born in
Llanishen Llanishen (Welsh Llanisien ''llan'' church + ''Isien'' Saint Isan) is a district and community in the north of Cardiff, Wales. Its population as of the 2011 census was 17,417. Llanishen is the home of the former HMRC tax offices, the talles ...
,
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, Wales. He was the son of Rachel E. (née Rees) and
Hilary Marquand Hilary Adair Marquand, (24 December 1901 – 6 November 1972) was a British economist and Labour Party politician. Life and career He was born in Cardiff, the son of Alfred Marquand of Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, a clerk in a coal exporting ...
, an economist and
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
MP who served as Minister of Pensions and later
Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...
under Prime Minister
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
. He is the younger brother of
David Marquand David Ian Marquand (born 20 September 1934) is a British academic and former Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP). Background and political career Marquand was born in Cardiff; his father was Hilary Marquand, also an academic and former La ...
, who also served as a Labour MP. Marquand was educated at
Emanuel School Emanuel School is an independent, co-educational day school in Battersea, south-west London. The school was founded in 1594 by Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre and Queen Elizabeth I and occupies a 12-acre (4.9 ha) site close to Clapham Junction ra ...
, London, the
University of Aix-Marseille Aix-Marseille University (AMU; french: Aix-Marseille Université; formally incorporated as ''Université d'Aix-Marseille'') is a public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II of ...
in France and
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, where he read modern languages, and where one of his tutors was
E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
. During
National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...
he studied Mandarin and was posted to Hong Kong where he also read the news on the English language Hong Kong Television.


Career

By the late 1960s, Marquand had begun a career directing television documentaries for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, where he worked on projects such as the 1972 series ''Search for the Nile'' and an edition of ''One Pair of Eyes'' (1968), about the novelist
Margaret Drabble Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and ''Jer ...
who had been a friend of his at Cambridge. He collaborated with the celebrated foreign correspondent
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...
on a long-running series called ''Cameron Country'' for BBC television and also with
John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilger ...
on a series of films for ITV. In 1979, Marquand incorporated many of his documentary techniques in his biographical television movie ''
Birth of the Beatles Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...
''. He directed several films specifically for children including the 1977 Emmy winning ''Big Henry and the Polka Dot Kid''. On the strength of his direction of the 1981 feature, '' Eye of the Needle'', Marquand was hired by writer-producer
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...
to direct ''
Return of the Jedi ''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who ...
''.Richard Marquand > Biography – AllMovie
Retrieved 25 September 2010. In his commentary track on the DVD, Lucas explains that Marquand "had done some great suspense films and was really good with actors. ''Eye of the Needle'' was the film I'd seen that he had done that impressed me the most, it was really nicely done and had a lot of energy and suspense." Marquand subsequently directed the 1985 courtroom thriller ''Jagged Edge'', starring
Jeff Bridges Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Bridges comes from a prominent a ...
and
Glenn Close Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, Close has garnered numerous accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards ...
.


Personal life and death

In 1960, Marquand married screenwriter Josephine Elwyn-Jones, the daughter of Labour MP Elwyn Jones and author and illustrator
Pearl Binder Pearl Binder, Baroness Elwyn-Jones (pronounced ; 28 June 1904 – 25 January 1990) was a British writer, illustrator, stained glass, stained-glass artist, lithographer, sculptor and a champion of the Pearly King, Pearly Kings and Queens. Bind ...
. They had two children, Hannah Rachel and James Elwyn, before they divorced in 1970.
James Marquand James Elwyn Marquand (born 21 September 1964) is a British film editor and director. He was born in Hammersmith, west London, the son of Welsh director Richard Marquand ('' Jagged Edge'', ''Return of the Jedi''), and his first wife Josephine Elw ...
is a film editor who has also worked as a director. In 1981, Marquand married fellow film director Carol Bell, with whom he had another two children, Sam Adair and Molly Joyce. Marquand was a fan of
Liverpool Football Club Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has ...
. According to a 2014
Wales Online Media Wales Ltd. is a publishing company based in Cardiff, Wales. As of 2009 it was owned by Reach plc (formerly known as the Trinity Mirror Group). It was previously known as the Western Mail & Echo Ltd. History The ''Western Mail'' was fo ...
interview with his son James, Marquand wrote a screenplay for "a Welsh western" in the late 1970s at the South Wales branch of
Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...
. The screenplay told the story of a young orphan girl in Victorian
Mid Wales Mid Wales ( cy, Canolbarth Cymru or simply ''Y Canolbarth'', meaning "the midlands") or Central Wales refers to a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd ...
who enlists two local men to help her wreak revenge on those who killed her father; Marquand used to tell the story to his children when they were on holiday at the family's cottage near
Tregaron Tregaron ( "town of St Caron") is an ancient market town in Ceredigion, Wales, astride the River Brenig, a tributary of the River Teifi. Tregaron is northeast of Lampeter. According to the 2011 Census, the population of the ward of Tregaron wa ...
. Marquand reportedly pitched it to Hollywood producers who expressed interest in making it into a film; however, Marquand declined the offer because the producers insisted the story be relocated to the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
in the United States. In the interview, James Marquand expressed interest in adapting his father's screenplay into a film. Marquand was driving his children home when he suffered a stroke brought on by an
embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule ( fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniot ...
. He reached the destination before collapsing, and died in hospital in
Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...
,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, on 4 September 1987, 18 days shy of his 50th birthday. His last film, ''
Hearts of Fire ''Hearts of Fire'' is a 1987 American musical drama film starring Bob Dylan, Fiona Flanagan (billed only as "Fiona") and Rupert Everett. The film was essentially a vehicle for Dylan based on his success as a rock musician. It received poor revie ...
'', starring
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, was released posthumously.


Filmography


Theatrical feature films


Short films


Television films


Television series


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marquand, Richard 1937 births 1987 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Mass media people from Cardiff Welsh film directors Hugo Award winners People educated at Emanuel School Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Science fiction film directors Return of the Jedi Aix-Marseille University alumni British documentary filmmakers Deaths from embolism Welsh television directors