The director of the best and first disaster film of the 1970's The Poseidon Adventure has died.Ronald Neame passed away from complications due to a fall. He was 99.
His father, Elwin Neame, was a film director and his mother, Ivy Close, was a film star. During the 1920s Neame started working at the famous Elstree Studios. One of his first jobs was assistant cameraman for Alfred Hitchcock on Blackmail (1929), the first talking picture made in England.
He soon started getting films as a cinematographer and after working together on In Which We Serve, Neame and the great David Lean helped form a production company called Cineguild.
After a fall-out with Lean and the demise of the company in 1947, Neame turned to directing with Take My Life.
As a director he would prove quite versatile, doing many different genres like comedy The Promoter , Hopscotch, and First Monday in October , psychological dramas The Chalk Garden, the musical version of Scrooge, and the thriller The Odessa File.
A pioneer of British cinema but for me--it's The Poseidon Adventure--with Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine squaring off on a capsized ocean liner that holds a special place for me...
Variety has more on Neame
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