Lewis Gilbert, the director who brought villain’s volcanic lairs to the James Bond film franchise, has died. He was 97.
Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli confirmed the news in a statement, saying: “It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of our dear friend Lewis Gilbert.”
“Lewis was a true gentleman. He made an enormous contribution to the British film industry as well as the Bond films, directing You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. His films are not only loved by us but are considered classics within the series. He will be sorely missed.”
Gilbert also directed the original Alfie film in 1966, which made a star of Michael Caine as the titular womaniser.
Gilbert was an East End lad himself, having been born in Hackney in 1920 to a family of music hall performers. He first took to the stage at five, swiftly becoming part of his parents’ act, before appearing as a child actor in films in the late Twenties and Thirties.
The Second World War interrupted his film career – which made him the family breadwinner before he had reached his teens – but he joined the RAF’s film unit, working on documentaries. After the war, he moved behind the camera professionally, writing, directing and producing low-budget feature films during the Fifties and Sixties
It was Gilbert’s wife, Hylda, who encouraged him to adapt Bill Naughton’s play for the screen. Gilbert’s direction of Caine to speak directly to camera won him acclaim and awards: Alfie picked up the Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival and five Oscar nominations.
The director was similarly cajoled into taking on Bond. Producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli, who was drawn to Gilbert because his experience in making war documentaries showed he could direct a big-budget film filled with technical detail.
Once convinced, Gilbert really went big on the technical detail, as Bosley Crowther’s 1967 review of You Only Live Twice proclaimed: “There’s so much of that scientific clatter – so much warring of super-capsules out in space and fussing with electronic gadgets in a great secret underground launching pad – that this wayout adventure picture should be the joy and delight of the youngsters and give pleasure to the reasonable adults who can find release in the majestically absurd.”
Gilbert continued to produced well-loved pictures after finishing his Bond trilogy with Moonraker in 1979. Notably, he reunited with Caine for Educating Rita, in which Gilbert directed Julie Walters in her first film. He directed his last film, Before You Go, in 2002, aged 81.