Mike Newell | |
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Newell at WonderCon, 2010
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Born |
Michael Cormac Newell 28 March 1942 St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Cambridge University |
Occupation | Director, Producer |
Years active | c. 1960 – present |
Spouse(s) | Bernice Stegers (1980 - present) |
Children | 2 |
Michael Cormac "Mike" Newell (born 28 March 1942) is an English director and producer of motion pictures for film and television. Newell won the 1994 BAFTA Award for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Newell was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, the son of amateur actors. Newell was educated at St Albans School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He then attended a three-year training course at Granada Television, with the intention of entering the theatre.
Newell directed various British TV shows from the 1960s onwards (such as Spindoe, credited as Cormac Newell, and Big Breadwinner Hog), but eventually shifted his focus to film direction.
His first feature-length project was The Man in the Iron Mask (1977), a made-for-television film. His first critically acclaimed movie was Bad Blood (1982), concerning the 1941 manhunt for the New Zealand mass-killer, Stan Graham, played by Jack Thompson. This was followed by Dance with a Stranger (1985), a biographical drama starring Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Great Britain. For his directorial efforts, Newell won the Award of the Youth at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
Newell continued his successes in the film industry with Enchanted April (1992), an adaptation of the 1922 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim. Miranda Richardson received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical and Joan Plowright won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy/Musical.