The Cinema of Tony Richardson

An important cultural trend-setter both in Britain and America, Richardson is here given his due as an influential and inventive film director who specialized in literary adaptations and work constantly in theater, film, and television production. Richardson (1928-1991) worked with George Devine at the Royal Court Theater during the 1950s when he revolutionized British theater through his productions of John Osborne's plays Look Back in Anger(1956) and The Entertainer(1957). Both plays were then adapted to the cinema, launching Richardson's career as a feature film director. Richardson went on to a distinguished career in Hollywood as a result of his Academy Award-winning 1963 adaptation of Henry Fielding's satiric novel Tom Jones.