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David Lean (1908-1991)

Alias:
大卫·里恩
데이비드 린

Birthplace:
Croydon, Surrey, England, UK

Born:
March 25, 1908

Died:
April 16, 1991

Biography from TheMovieDB

Sir David Lean CBE (25 March 1908 – 16 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, he is best remembered for adapting the works of Charles Dickens and Noël Coward, and for his large scale period epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Ryan's Daughter (1970), and A Passage to India (1984).  Acclaimed and praised by directors such as Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, Lean was voted 9th greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute Sight & Sound "Directors Top Directors" poll 2002. Nominated seven times for the Academy Award for Best Director, winning twice for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, he has seven films in the British Film Institute's Top 100 British Films (with three of them being in the top five).

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Additional information:

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American Film Institute (AFI)
1990 AFI Life Achievement Award

British Film Institute (BFI)
2002
#9		 Directors' Top 10 Poll
Greatest Directors of All Time

Film Performances

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Film Production

Adaptation:
1949  The Passionate Friends

Additional Writing:
1945  Brief Encounter
1949  The Passionate Friends

Assistant Camera:
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1945  Brief Encounter
1949  The Passionate Friends

Assistant Director:
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1941  Major Barbara
1945  Brief Encounter
1949  The Passionate Friends

Director:
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

Editor:
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1930  The Night Porter
1931  These Charming People
1933  Money for Speed
1933  Song of the Plough
1933  The Fortunate Fool
1933  The Ghost Camera
1934  Dangerous Ground
1934  The King of Paris
1934  The Secret of the Loch
1934  Tiger Bay
1935  Escape Me Never
1935  The Crouching Beast
1936  As You Like It
1936  Ball at Savoy
1937  Dreaming Lips
1937  The Wife of General Ling
1939  Pygmalion
1939  Spies of the Air
1940  French Without Tears
1940  Spy for a Day
1941  49th Parallel
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1942  One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

Producer:
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1930  The Night Porter
1931  These Charming People
1933  Money for Speed
1933  Song of the Plough
1933  The Fortunate Fool
1933  The Ghost Camera
1934  Dangerous Ground
1934  The King of Paris
1934  The Secret of the Loch
1934  Tiger Bay
1935  Escape Me Never
1935  The Crouching Beast
1936  As You Like It
1936  Ball at Savoy
1937  Dreaming Lips
1937  The Wife of General Ling
1939  Pygmalion
1939  Spies of the Air
1940  French Without Tears
1940  Spy for a Day
1941  49th Parallel
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1942  One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

Production Runner:
1927  Quinneys
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1930  The Night Porter
1931  These Charming People
1933  Money for Speed
1933  Song of the Plough
1933  The Fortunate Fool
1933  The Ghost Camera
1934  Dangerous Ground
1934  The King of Paris
1934  The Secret of the Loch
1934  Tiger Bay
1935  Escape Me Never
1935  The Crouching Beast
1936  As You Like It
1936  Ball at Savoy
1937  Dreaming Lips
1937  The Wife of General Ling
1939  Pygmalion
1939  Spies of the Air
1940  French Without Tears
1940  Spy for a Day
1941  49th Parallel
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1942  One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

Screenplay:
1927  Quinneys
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1930  The Night Porter
1931  These Charming People
1933  Money for Speed
1933  Song of the Plough
1933  The Fortunate Fool
1933  The Ghost Camera
1934  Dangerous Ground
1934  The King of Paris
1934  The Secret of the Loch
1934  Tiger Bay
1935  Escape Me Never
1935  The Crouching Beast
1936  As You Like It
1936  Ball at Savoy
1937  Dreaming Lips
1937  The Wife of General Ling
1939  Pygmalion
1939  Spies of the Air
1940  French Without Tears
1940  Spy for a Day
1941  49th Parallel
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1942  One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

Second Unit Director:
1927  Quinneys
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1930  The Night Porter
1931  These Charming People
1933  Money for Speed
1933  Song of the Plough
1933  The Fortunate Fool
1933  The Ghost Camera
1934  Dangerous Ground
1934  The King of Paris
1934  The Secret of the Loch
1934  Tiger Bay
1935  Escape Me Never
1935  The Crouching Beast
1936  As You Like It
1936  Ball at Savoy
1937  Dreaming Lips
1937  The Wife of General Ling
1939  Pygmalion
1939  Spies of the Air
1940  French Without Tears
1940  Spy for a Day
1941  49th Parallel
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1942  One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1965  The Greatest Story Ever Told
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

Writer:
1927  Quinneys
1928  Sailors Don't Care
1930  The Night Porter
1931  These Charming People
1933  Money for Speed
1933  Song of the Plough
1933  The Fortunate Fool
1933  The Ghost Camera
1934  Dangerous Ground
1934  The King of Paris
1934  The Secret of the Loch
1934  Tiger Bay
1935  Escape Me Never
1935  The Crouching Beast
1936  As You Like It
1936  Ball at Savoy
1937  Dreaming Lips
1937  The Wife of General Ling
1939  Pygmalion
1939  Spies of the Air
1940  French Without Tears
1940  Spy for a Day
1941  49th Parallel
1941  Major Barbara
1942  In Which We Serve
1942  One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1944  This Happy Breed
1945  Blithe Spirit
1945  Brief Encounter
1946  Great Expectations
1948  Oliver Twist
1949  The Passionate Friends
1950  Madeleine
1952  The Sound Barrier
1954  Hobson's Choice
1955  Summertime
1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962  Lawrence of Arabia
1965  Doctor Zhivago
1965  The Greatest Story Ever Told
1970  Ryan's Daughter
1979  Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor
1984  A Passage to India

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TV Performances

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Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

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While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

  • I added "runners up" to Top 10 lists, treating them as ties where applicable and numbering them accordingly at the bottom of each list.
  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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