Ronald Neame

Ronald Neame, who died on 16^th June 2010, was described by George Perry in The Times obituary as "one of the greatest figures of British film", a view generally acknowedged throughout, and beyond, the industry.

He was born in London in 1911, the son of Elwin Neame, photographer (and subsequently film director), and Ivy Close, a star of the silent cinema.

His early education took place at University College School from which he progressed to Hurstpierpoint College where he was a member of Star House. His education, however, was cut short when he was forced to leave Hurst in December 1926, after his father’s death in a road accident. A year before he left, he had starred as Juliet (Hurst did not admit girls until much later so – before their voices broke – young leading actors were cast in the roles of girls and women) in the school Shakespeare Society’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Neame retained his contact with Hurst over the years and spoke on the ‘phone to Hurst’s Headmaster Tim Manly only recently. "He was" said Mr Manly "a truly lovely man".

picture above - Ronald Neame as Juliet (copyright © Hurstpierpoint College, 2010)

After leaving Hurst, Ronald Neame began his career in the film industry in the traditional way, as a messenger boy, working for Elstree Studios. His timing was fortuitous because, after some time in the doldrums, the British film industry was in renaissance. His big break came in 1929 when, whilst still in his teens, he was an assistant cameraman on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail, the first British sound movie.

By the mid 1930’s he was acknowledged as an outstanding cameraman and was one of the youngest directors of photography in the industry. His work later in that decade (including  Pygmalion, Major Barbara and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing) consolidated his reputation.

In 1942 he filmed Noël Coward’s In Which We Serve, working closely with  co-director, David Lean and then joined Lean and Anthony Havelock-Allan to form the influential production company, Cineguild. With Neame working as cameraman (and later producing and scriptwriting) and Lean directing, Cineguild's output was extraordinary. Working with Coward, they produced This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit and Brief Encounter. Later, speaking of Brief Encounter, Neame described the work that he and David Lean did with the script as “turning a very static play into quite an interesting motion picture in the way it was constructed; the flashbacks were done rather well, it was a rather good idea to introduce those which, by the way, was David’s idea. David was a very, very talented, a brilliant man. Noel Coward used to say of us two ‘well David of course has that touch of genius but you Ronnie, you’ve got your feet on the ground, I trust your instincts …” Neame and Lean also worked together on Great Expectations (which won two Oscars and for which Neame, Lean and Havelock-Allen received a screenplay nomination) and Oliver Twist.

Neame left Cineguild after problems with a screenplay for H G Wells’, The Passionate Friends that he had co-written with thriller writer Eric Ambler. He then teamed up with Alec Guinness on The Card (1952), an Eric Ambler adaption of the Arnold Bennett novel and again with Guinness for The Horse's Mouth - the only film that Guinness scripted and starred in - (1958) and again for Tunes of Glory (1960), the film of which he said he was proudest.

Amongst his many other films during the 50's and 60's were Judy Garland’s last film, I Could Go On Singing (1963) and Gambit (1966) with Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.  He went on to direct the brilliant and lavishly praised The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), which won Maggie Smith her first Oscar.

His greatest commercial success, however, was The Poseidon Adventure (1972), a film that he was brought in to complete as ‘a safe pair of hands’ after the original producer walked out. He always said that this was his favourite film because the 5% of net profits he earned gave him enough money to do exactly what he wanted for the rest of his life.

Neame's last full-length film, Foreign Body, was released in 1986 and he published his autobiography, Straight from the Horse's Mouth, in 2002.

Ronald Neame CBE, writer, cinematographer, producer, film director and OHJ, died on Wednesday 16^th June at a Los Angeles hospital, aged 99. He had not recovered from a fall in which he broke his leg some six weeks previously. He was described in The Times as "one of the greatest figures of British film", a view generally acknowedged throughout, and beyond, the industry.

He was the second generation in what is now a film dynasty. He is survived by his second wife Donna Friedberg, his son Christopher Neame (by his first wife, Beryl Heanly) who is both a writer and producer and his grandson, Gareth Neame, a successful television producer.