Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Lewis Gilbert

Director

Born - 6 March 1920, Hackney, London, England
Died - 23 February 2018

Fair-haired, bespectacled, not-too-tall director, a self-effacing man who was nonetheless at the forefront of British cinema for several decades and directed some of its most popular entertainments. Born Lewis Goldberg in East London, he began as a boy actor, progressing to assistant director by the late 1930s. After being invalided out of war service in 1944, he began directing documentaries, then fictional features. His specialities were gritty war films, spiky comedies, films with children or teenagers, and thrillers, including three James Bonds. As an actor, he appeared in films from 1934 (Dick Turpin) to 1940 (Room for Two). Sailors Do Care (1944) was his first documentary and The Little Ballerina (1947) his first feature. Highlights from his later output include Once a Sinner (1950), Time, Gentlemen, Please! (1952), The Good Die Young (1954), The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), Reach for the Sky (1956), The Admirable Crichton (1957), Carve Her Name With Pride (1958), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), The Greengage Summer (1961), HMS Defiant (1962), Alfie (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), The Adventurers (1970), Operation Daybreak (1975), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), Educating Rita (1983), Shirley Valentine (1989), Stepping Out (1991), Haunted (1995) and Before You Go (2001), his last. Married to his wife Hylda for more than 50 years until her death in 2005, his biggest regret was having to turn down The Godfather because of other commitments. Busy into his nineties, he died a few days short of his 98th birthday.