MICHAEL APTED Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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MICHAEL APTED

Name: Michael Apted                                                                   
Born: 10 February 1941 Buckinghamshire, England                                       
                                                                                       
Michael Apted (born 10 February 1941) is an English director, producer, writer         
and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his               
generation but is best known for his work on the Up series of documentaries.           
                                                                                       
On June 29, 2003 he was elected President of the Directors Guild of America. He       
returned to television, directing the first three episodes of the TV series Rome.     
His most recent feature film project was Amazing Grace, which premièred at the       
closing of the Toronto Film Festival on September 16, 2006.                           
                                                                                       
Apted was born to a lower middle class family — his father worked for an             
insurance company — in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Apted secured a scholarship       
to attend City of London School and then to study law and history at Cambridge         
University (Downing College).                                                         
                                                                                       
He began his career in television, securing a traineeship at Granada Television       
and where began work as a researcher. One of his first projects at Granada would       
became his most famous: the Up! series, which began in 1964 as a profile of           
fourteen seven-year-old children for the ground-breaking current affairs series       
World In Action. As researcher, Apted was involved in selecting the children.         
Though it began as a one-shot documentary, the series has become an institution,       
revisiting the subjects every seven years, with Apted directing the later             
episodes in the series. The series follows Apted's thesis that the British class       
system remains largely in place and is premised on the Jesuit motto "Give me a         
child until he is seven and I will give you the man." Now in its seventh               
installment, the series is a dramatic look the lives of ordinary (and not so           
ordinary) peoples' lives. The latest version, 49 Up, was produced in 2005 and         
Apted has said that he hopes to be able to make 56 Up, at which time he will be       
seventy-two.                                                                           
                                                                                       
During his time at Granada, Apted also directed a number of episodes of               
Coronation Street, then written by Jack Rosenthal. Apted and Rosenthal went on         
to collaborate on a number of popular television and film projects including the       
pilot episodes for The Dustbinmen and The Lovers. They teamed up again in 1984         
for the TV movie P'tang Yang Kipperbang, one of the first films commissioned by       
Britain's Channel 4.                                                                   
                                                                                       
In 1976 he directed a play in the Granada TV Series Laurence Olivier Presents,         
the episode was The Collection by Harold Pinter. The play starred Sir Laurence         
Olivier, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates and Helen Mirren.                               
                                                                                       
For his work in television, Apted has won several British Academy Awards,             
including one for Best Dramatic Director.                                             
                                                                                       
Coronation Street, 1963 - 1964                                                         
                                                                                       
Haunted, 1967                                                                         
                                                                                       
There's a hole in your dustbin, Deliah, 1968 - writer Jack Rosenthal                   
                                                                                       
The Dustbinmen, 1969                                                                   
                                                                                       
Big Breadwinner Hog, 1969                                                             
                                                                                       
The Lovers, 1970                                                                       
                                                                                       
Follyfoot, 1970                                                                       
                                                                                       
Another Sunday and Sweet F.A., 1970 - writer Jack Rosenthal                           
                                                                                       
The Collection, 1976 - written by Harold Pinter and starring Laurence Olivier         
                                                                                       
Play for Today, 1972 - 1977                                                           
                                                                                       
P'tang Yang Kipperbang, 1984                                                           
                                                                                       
New York News, 1994                                                                   
                                                                                       
Married in America, 2002                                                               
                                                                                       
Rome (mini-series), 2006