Joseph Losey
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Joseph Losey (January 14, 1909 in La Crosse, Wisconsin – June 22, 1984 in London) was an American theater and film director.
After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood.
During the McCarthy Era, he was investigated for his supposed ties with the Communist Party and was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses. His career in shambles, he moved to London, where he continued working as a director.
Even in the UK, he experienced problems: his first British film, The Sleeping Tiger, a 1954 film noir crime thriller, did not bear his name originally in the credits as director, as the stars of the film, Alexis Smith and Alexander Knox, feared being blacklisted in Hollywood due to working on a film he directed. He was also originally slated to direct the 1956 Hammer Films production X the Unknown; however after a few days work on the project star Dean Jagger refused to work with a supposed Communist sympathiser and Losey was moved off the project. From 1956 to 1963 Joseph Losey was married to British actress Dorothy Bromiley.
In the 1960s Losey entered a productive partnership with dramatist and screenwriter, Harold Pinter. The two collaborated on three films together: The Servant (1963), Accident (1967) and The Go-Between (1970). All three were highly acclaimed and were nominated for prestigious awards. The Go-Between won the Golden Palm Award at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
Bibliography
- Michel Ciment, Le Livre de Losey. Entretiens avec le cinéaste, Paris, Stock/Cinéma, 1979, 465 p.
- Michel Ciment, Joseph Losey: l'oeil du Maître, Institut Lumière/Actes Sud, 1994, 360 p.
- Penelope Houston, "Losey's Paper Handkerchief", Sight and Sound, Summer 1966, pp. 142–143.
- Gilles Jacob, "Joseph Losey, or The Camera Calls", Sight and Sound, Spring 1966, pp. 62–67.
