Full list by date of death

Terence Davies

Director

Born - 20 November 1945, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Died - 7 October 2023

Bespectacled British director with gnomelike features, best known for painful - and painstaking - portraits of childhood. Sadly outspoken on his own sexuality - 'I hate being gay. It has ruined my life' - many of his films examine both this dilemma and the Catholicism into which he was born. His own harrowing experiences at the hands of an abusive father colour and infuse all his portraits of (mostly northern) working-class England. His films were largely critically successful, although he had more difficulty appealing to a mainstream audience. His film CV includes Children (1976), Madonna and Child (1980), Death and Transfiguration (1983), Distant Voices/Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992), The Neon Bible (1994), The House of Mirth (his best film, 2000), Of Time and the City (2008), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Sunset Song (2015), A Quiet Passion (2016) and Benediction (2021), his last. He died 'following a short illness'.