Sidney J. Furie

Sidney J. Furie

director, writer, producer

Sidney J. Furie was born on Feb 25, 1933 in Canada. Sidney J. Furie's big-screen debut came with A Dangerous Age directed by Sidney J. Furie in 1957. Sidney J. Furie is known for Night Games directed by Don Taylor, Barry Newman stars as Anthony J. Petrocelli and Susan Howard as Maggie Petrocelli. Sidney J. Furie has got 3 awards and 6 nominations so far. The most recent award Sidney J. Furie achieved is Directors Guild of Canada. The upcoming new movie Sidney J. Furie plays is Pride of Lions which will be released on Jun 03, 2014.

Toronto-born Sidney J. Furie has enjoyed an incredibly distinguished career that has spanned more than five decades. Having dabbled in every genre, Furie has directed films starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Rodney Dangerfield, Barbara Hershey, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland, 'Laurence Olivier' (qav) and countless others.He directed the first two feature-length fiction films ever made in English Canada, A Dangerous Age (1957) and A Cool Sound from Hell (1959), both independently financed, before emigrating to London in 1960. In 1961 he directed five feature films in a single year, before finally scoring his first box-office success with Les Jeunes (1961), starring the "British Elvis Presley", Cliff Richard. The critical and commercial success of Furie's 1963 British New Wave film The leather boys (1964), a kitchen-sink drama starring Rita Tushingham and Dudley Sutton, delivered him to the attention of high-powered producer Harry Saltzman, who hired him to direct the groundbreaking film Ipcress - Danger immédiat (1965), which won the BAFTA award for Best Picture. Michael Caine became an overnight star because of the film's success. The film also screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.Furie then emigrated to Hollywood to direct Marlon Brando in L'Homme de la Sierra (1966) and Frank Sinatra in Chantage au meurtre (1967) for Universal and Warner Brothers, respectively. Paramount Pictures, then under the aegis of the new Gulf+Western management regime, hired Furie in 1967. He would work as a Paramount filmmaker for the next eight years. Beginning in 1968, he directed five films for the studio. His box-office hit Lady Sings the Blues (1972) was nominated for five Academy Awards and was Paramount's second biggest money-maker that year, behind only Le Parrain (1972).In 1981 he directed L'emprise (1982), a cult classic that was named by Martin Scorsese as the fourth best horror film ever made, ranking ahead of both Shining (1980) and Psychose (1960). Furie was assigned to direct Superman IV (1987), but was challenged by substantial last-minute budget cuts and a script he could not change (engineered personally by Christopher Reeve).Throughout the 1990s and 2000s he returned to his native Canada to helm a series of films, often direct-to-video pictures, ranging from the war drama Going Back (2001) to the Canadian-British co-production Global Heresy (2002), a comedy starring Peter O'Toole and Joan Plowright. Other career highlights include Les boys de la compagnie C (1978) (one of the first Vietnam War pictures about combat soldiers, later to provide the basis for Full Metal Jacket (1987)), the underrated action epic Commando sur les stups (1973), and the "Iron Eagle" series. He has also maintained dual citizenship between the U.S. and Canada. In 2010, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Canada.

  • Birthday

    Feb 25, 1933
  • Place of Birth

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Known For

Awards

3 wins & 6 nominations

Directors Guild of Canada
2010
Winner - DGC Lifetime Achievement Award
Western Heritage Awards
1967
Theatrical Motion Picture
Winner - Bronze Wrangler
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Movies & TV Shows

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Movies