Michael Winner
| Michael Winner | |
|---|---|
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Winner in 2010
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| Born |
Robert Michael Winner 30 October 1935 Hampstead, London, England |
| Died | 21 January 2013 (aged 77) Woodland House, Kensington, London, England |
| Occupation | Film director and producer, food critic, media personality |
| Years active | 1955–2012 |
| Spouse(s) | Geraldine Lynton-Edwards (m. 2011–13) (his death) |
Robert Michael Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was an English film director and producer, and a restaurant critic for The Sunday Times.
Winner was an only child, born in Hampstead,London, England, to Helen (née Zlota) and George Joseph Winner (1910–1975), a company director. His family was Jewish; his mother was Polish and his father of Russian extraction. Following his father's death, Winner's mother gambled recklessly and sold art and furniture worth around £10m at the time, bequeathed to her not only for her life but to Michael thereafter. She died aged 78 in 1984.
He was educated at St Christopher School, Letchworth, and Downing College, Cambridge, where he read law and economics. He also edited the university's student newspaper, Varsity (he was the youngest ever editor up to that time, both in age and in terms of his university career, being only in the second term of his second year). Winner had earlier written a newspaper column, 'Michael Winner's Showbiz Gossip,' in the Kensington Post from the age of 14. The first issue of Showgirl Glamour Revue in 1955 has him writing another film and showbusiness gossip column, "Winner's World". Such jobs allowed him to meet and interview several leading film personalities, including James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. He also wrote for the New Musical Express.
He began his screen career as an assistant director of BBC television programmes, cinema shorts, and full-length "B" productions, occasionally writing screenplays. In 1957 he directed his first travelogue, This is Belgium, shot largely on location in East Grinstead. His first on-screen credit was earned as a writer for the 1958 crime film Man with a Gun directed by Montgomery Tully. Winner's first credit on a cinema short was Associate Producer on the 1959 film Floating Fortress produced by Harold Baim. Winner's first project as a lead director involved another story he wrote, Shoot to Kill, in 1960. He would regularly edit his own movies, using the pseudonym "Arnold Crust".
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