The Devils Director Ken Russell Has died

It’s been an in different few days and after getting home tonight I come home to the sad news that British film director Ken Russell has died at the age of 84.

BBC report the veteran director who was one of film’s big personalities died unexpectedly though his son Alex Verney-Elliott, said he died on Sunday following a series of strokes.

“My father died peacefully, he died with a smile on his face,” – said Alex Verney-Elliott  .

Born in Southampton July 3rd 1927  was regarded by some  as the wild man of British cinema whose film choice often tested the limits of film boards such BBFC. His has been regarded as colourful, daring, frequently courting with controversy, with The Devils,which has the legendary nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates and Oliver Reed.  Woman In Love gave him his one and only Oscar success   but it was 1975 when he adapted The Who’s Rock Oprea Tommy which gave him his most  success  cinematically.

Glenda Jackson was the winner of Ken Russell’s only Oscar success said he was constantly overlooked by the industry “It’s an absolute shame that the British film industry has ignored him. It’s an absolute disgrace… he broke down barriers for so many people,”  she also further commented “he created the kind of climate in which actors could do their job and I loved him dearly,”

Russell was also seen as a important creative force behind British television sparking a storm with the censors with tv adaptation of DH Lawrence’s  Lady Chatterley’s Lover starring Joely Richardson and Sean Bean with the sex scenes been regarded as ‘rough’.  After the television spell.  would later return to cinema working on many low budget films such as Crimes of ion, Gothic, Salome’s Last Dance and the cult horror-comedy The Lair of the White Worm, starring Hugh Grant. 

In 1990’s Russell found it hard to find budgeting a big problem and slipped away from the public’s eye but in 2007 he returned to the public eye returning as a contestant on celebrity Big Brother only to withdraw a few days later after an disagreement with Jane Goody. Russell’s fourth wife Elise pointed out Ken Russell was working on a musical version of Alice In Wonderland as well as a article for The Times Newspaper about the release of The Devils on DVD.

Our thoughts go out to Elise and Ken’s family , rest in Piece.

The Telegraph in their news story about the director have included to video’s first a look at the directors film and secondly Martin Scorsese leading the tributes to the director.