Roy Ward Baker
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- December 19, 1916
- Died
- October 5, 2010 (aged 93)
- Birthplace
- London, England
Biography
Roy Ward Baker was an English film director born in London on 19 December 1916. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for best foreign English language film in 1959. His later career was varied, and included many horror films and television shows. Baker's early career, from 1934 to 1939, was spent working for Gainsborough Pictures, a British film production company based in Islington, North London, famous for its prestige productions. His first jobs were menial - making tea for crew members, for example - but by 1938 he had risen through the ranks to work as assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. He served in the army during World War II, until transferring to the Army Kinematograph Unit in 1943 in order to make better use of skills developed in his pre-war career producing documentaries and teaching materials for troops. One of his superiors at the time was novelist Eric Ambler. It was he who gave Baker his first big break directing The October Man, from an Ambler screenplay, in 1947. Ambler also adapted Walter Lord's A Night to Remember for Baker's 1958 screen version. During the early 1950s, Baker worked for three years in Hollywood where he directed Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and Robert Ryan in 3D film noir Inferno (1953). He returned to the UK for the latter part of the decade, but defected to television in the early 1960s. He directed episodes of The Avengers, The Saint and The Champions - all adventure series created with an eye on the American market. The low-budget ethic of television production made him well-suited to his next career move into cheaply produced but lavish-looking British horror films. He directed, amongst others, Quatermass and the Pit (1967) The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Scars of Dracula (1970) for Hammer, and Asylum (1972) for Amicus. In the latter part of the 1970s he returned to television, and throughout the 1980s continued to work in Television. He retired in 1992.
Known For
Filmography
Saracen
TV · Director · 1 ep
The Masks of Death
Movie · Director
Fairly Secret Army
TV · Director · 7 eps
The Irish R.M.
TV · Director · 8 eps
Q.E.D.
TV · Director · 1 ep
The Monster Club
Movie · Director
The Flame Trees of Thika
TV · Director · 7 eps
Death Becomes Me
Movie · Director
Minder
TV · Director · 12 eps
Danger UXB
TV · Director · 3 eps
Return of the Saint
TV · Director · 2 eps
The Switch
Movie · Director
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Movie · Director
Mission: Monte Carlo
Movie · Director
And Now the Screaming Starts!
Movie · Director
The Vault of Horror
Movie · Director
Asylum
Movie · Director
The Protectors
TV · Director · 1 ep
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde
Movie · Director
The Persuaders!
TV · Director · 4 eps
Jason King
TV · Director · 3 eps
The Vampire Lovers
Movie · Director
Scars of Dracula
Movie · Director
Foreign Exchange
Movie · Director
Moon Zero Two
Movie · Director
The Spy Killer
Movie · Director
Department S
TV · Director · 1 ep
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
TV · Director · 2 eps
The Anniversary
Movie · Director
The Fiction Makers
Movie · Director
Journey to the Unknown
TV · Director · 1 ep
The Champions
TV · Director · 2 eps
Quatermass and the Pit
Movie · Director
The Baron
TV · Director · 4 eps
Gideon's Way
TV · Director · 3 eps
Two Left Feet
Movie · Director
The Human Jungle
TV · Director · 8 eps
The Valiant
Movie · Director
The Saint
TV · Director · 18 eps
The Singer Not the Song
Movie · Director
Flame in the Streets
Movie · Director
The Avengers
TV · Director · 8 eps
A Night to Remember
Movie · Director
The One That Got Away
Movie · Director
Tiger in the Smoke
Movie · Director
Jacqueline
Movie · Director
Passage Home
Movie · Director
Inferno
Movie · Director
Night Without Sleep
Movie · Director
Don't Bother to Knock
Movie · Director
The House in the Square
Movie · Director
Morning Departure
Movie · Director
Highly Dangerous
Movie · Director
Paper Orchid
Movie · Director
The Weaker Sex
Movie · Director
The October Man
Movie · Director
Read All About It
Movie · Director
What's the Next Job?
Movie · Director
Night Train to Munich
Movie · Second Unit Director
The Lady Vanishes
Movie · Assistant Director