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Sir Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is a British director and producer of film and television, often depicting real-life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply-drawn characters. He has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph named Frears among the 100 most influential people in British culture. In 2009, he received the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He received a Knight Bachelor in 2023 for his contributions to the film and television industries.
Born in Leicester and educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and Trinity College, Cambridge, Frears started his career working as an assistant director in theatre and film while directing many television plays. Frears directed his debut feature film Gumshoe in 1971 and received critical acclaim for his films in the 1980s such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). He also received two Academy Award nominations for directing The Grifters (1990) and The Queen (2006).
Frears is also known for his work on various television programmes, including the television films Fail Safe (2000), The Deal (2003), and Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013). He directed the Jeremy Thorpe BBC One biographical miniseries A Very English Scandal (2018), for which he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
From 1954 to 1959, Frears was educated at Gresham's School, an independent boarding school for boys (now co-educational) in the market town of Holt in Norfolk. This was followed by Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied between 1960 and 1963, earning a BA degree in Law.
With Finney's company Memorial Productions, Frears made The Burning, a 31-minute adaptation of a short story by Roland Starke. Although set in South Africa, it was filmed in Tangier. It was released theatrically attached to François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black.
Frears spent most of his early directing career in television, mainly for the BBC but also for the commercial sector. He contributed to several anthology series, such as the BBC's Play for Today. He also produced a series of Alan Bennett's plays for LWT, including The Old Crowd (1979, director: Lindsay Anderson). His directorial film debut was the noir detective spoof Gumshoe (1971).
Frears worked with Adrian Edmondson on Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, starring Peter Cook and Nicholas Parsons as part of The Comic Strip Presents series of self-contained comedy tv films, this being one of the first in that strand to receive a limited theatrical release ahead of broadcast. It aired as a 45-minute programme on Channel Four in 1988. Frears had previously directed a nascent Comic Strip parody of TV show The Professionals in 1982/3, and another of Daphne Du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca starring French and Saunders, Consuela in 1985, this formed the first of the duo's parody films for which they became well known.
Frears next directed the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears (1987), a collaboration with playwright Alan Bennett. His second film adapted from a Kureishi screenplay was Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987).
In 1988, Frears directed Dangerous Liaisons to widespread critical acclaim. The film was shot in France, with a cast that included Americans Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeiffer, and Uma Thurman. Based on the late 18th-century French novel of romantic game-playing and adapted by Christopher Hampton, the film received seven Academy Award nominations. These included for Best Picture and Best Actress for Glenn Close and Best Supporting Actress for Michelle Pfeiffer. The film also received ten British Academy Film Award nominations, including for Frears for Best Direction.
In 1992, Frears directed the comedy drama Hero, released in the United Kingdom as Accidental Hero. The film starred Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy Garcia, and Joan Cusack. Many critics compared the film to those of Preston Sturges and Frank Capra, as did Roger Ebert, who wrote, "It the has all the ingredients for a terrific entertainment, but it lingers over the kinds of details that belong in a different kind of movie. It comes out of the tradition of those rat-a-tat Preston Sturges comedies of the 1940s."Ebert, Roger. "Hero". RogerEbert.com, October 2, 1992. Retrieved: November 22, 2014. While the film was met with generally positive critical reviews, it was not a box office success. Columbia Pictures lost $25.6 million.Griffin and Masters 1996, p. 345.
Frears has also directed two films adapted from novels by Roddy Doyle, The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996). Frears's other films include the horror film Mary Reilly and the Western The Hi-Lo Country (1998).
The film received positive reviews from critics and has a score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The critical consensus states: "The deft hand of director Stephen Frears and strong performances by the ensemble cast combine to tell an entertaining story with a rock-solid soundtrack."
In 2002, Frears directed social thriller, Dirty Pretty Things, a film about two immigrants living in London. The film starred Audrey Tautou, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It won a British Independent Film Award for Best Independent British Film in 2003. For his performance as Okwe, Chiwetel Ejiofor won the 2003 British Independent Film Award for Best Actor.
In 2003, Frears was attached to direct the James Bond spin-off Jinx, featuring Halle Berry as her character from Die Another Day (2002) co-starring with Michael Madsen and Javier Bardem. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were scheduled to return to write the screenplay, and Wade described it as "a very atmospheric, Euro thriller, a Bourne-type movie". Producer Barbara Broccoli described it as the beginning of a "Winter Olympics"-style alternative to the conventional Bond films. However, the project was cancelled due to "creative differences" between Eon Productions and MGM, and in order to focus on the reboot of the series with Casino Royale (2006).
In 2003, Frears returned to directing for television with The Deal (2003), which depicts an Blair-Brown deal over which of them should become leader of the Labour Party in 1994. Michael Sheen portrayed Tony Blair to great acclaim. In 2005, Frears directed the British theatre comedy Mrs Henderson Presents starring Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins. The film was praised for its performances by Dench and Hoskins, with Dench receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Frears’s next film project was The Queen (2006), a film that depicts the death of Princess Diana on 31 August 1997, and the reaction of members of the monarchy and the public. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Mirren won Best Actress and Peter Morgan won Best Screenplay. Frears was nominated for the Golden Lion. When released within the United States, the film achieved box-office success and awards. At the Academy Awards, Frears received his second Academy Award nomination for best direction. Helen Mirren won numerous awards for playing the Elizabeth II, including the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 2013, Frears directed the drama, Philomena (2013), which was based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee (2009) by journalist Martin Sixsmith. This explored the story of Philomena Lee's 50-year search for her son, who was taken from her when she was a young unwed mother at a Catholic convent, and adopted by an American family. It also recounted Sixsmith's efforts to help her find the son. The film starred Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.
The film premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival to great acclaim and writers Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan won the best screenplay award for the film. The film won the People's Choice Award Runner-Up prize at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards at the 86th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (for Dench), and Best Original Score. It was also nominated for four British Academy Film Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The same year, HBO released Frears's television drama Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, starring Christopher Plummer and Frank Langella. It explores the United States Supreme Court deliberation over banning Muhammad Ali from boxing for refusing to serve in the US Army during the Vietnam War.
Frears directed a biopic of cycling champion Lance Armstrong, The Program, starring Ben Foster, which premiered in the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Many of Frears's films are based on stories of living persons, but he has never sought to meet any of his subjects. National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1316/07) with Stephen Frears in 2008 for its The Legacy of the English Stage Company collection held by the British Library. National Life Stories, 'Jellicoe, Ann (1 of 11) National Life Stories Collection: The Legacy of the English Stage Company', The British Library Board, 2008. Retrieved 21 February 2018
In 2016, Frears directed the film, Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep. The title character is a New York heiress known as an aspiring opera singer despite her poor singing abilities. Hugh Grant plays her manager and long-time companion, St. Clair Bayfield. Other cast members include Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Nina Arianda. The film was a critical and commercial success, with many praising Streep and Grant for their performances.
At the 89th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Costume Design and earned Streep her 20th nomination for Best Actress. It received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture in a Comedy or Musical. In 2017, Frears reunited with Judi Dench, this time in Victoria & Abdul, about the real-life relationship between Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her Indian Muslim servant Abdul Karim. The film also stars Ali Fazal, Michael Gambon, Eddie Izzard, Tim Pigott-Smith (in his final film role), and Adeel Akhtar. The film had its world premiere at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and was theatrically released on 15 September 2017 in the United Kingdom. It has grossed more than $65 million worldwide.
In 2018, Frears returned to the limited series with A Very English Scandal, which premiered on BBC One and later on Amazon Prime. The project is a three-part 2018 British television comedy-drama miniseries based on John Preston's 2016 book of the same name. It is a dramatisation of the 1976–1979 Thorpe affair and more than 15 years of events leading up to it. The series stars Hugh Grant as the politician Jeremy Thorpe, and Ben Whishaw as his lover Norman Josiffe. The limited series gained great acclaim in both the United Kingdom and the United States. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 97% based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 9.05/10. Rotten Tomatoes's critical consensus reads, "Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw impress in A Very English Scandal, an equally absorbing and appalling look at British politics and society". Grant received Primetime Emmy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, British Academy Television Award, and Critics Choice Award nominations for his performance while Whishaw earned an Emmy, and BAFTA win.
In 2022, it was reported that Frears would be directing a film about Billy Wilder titled Wilder & Me. An adaptation by Christopher Hampton of the novel Mr Wilder and Me (2020) by Jonathan Coe, the film is scheduled to begin shooting in early 2025, produced by Jeremy Thomas.
Early in his career, Frears made a programme featuring the band the Scaffold. He is name-checked ("Mr Frears had sticky-out ears...") in their hit song "Lily the Pink". Scaffold, "Lily the Pink" lyrics.
Frears lived in London with Anne Rothenstein and their two children.
Frears was Knight Bachelor in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to film and television.
In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, Frears signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election.
| BFI |
| Columbia Pictures |
| Palace Pictures |
| Mainline Pictures |
| Curzon Film Distributors |
| Palace Pictures / Nelson Entertainment |
| Warner Bros. |
| Miramax Films |
| Columbia Pictures |
| TriStar Pictures |
| Fox Searchlight Pictures |
| Gramercy Pictures / PolyGram Filmed Entertainment |
| Touchstone Pictures / Buena Vista Pictures |
| Curzon Film / Lionsgate Films |
| Miramax Films / Buena Vista International |
| Pathé / The Weinstein Company |
| Pathé |
| Pathé / Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Momentum Pictures |
| Radius-TWC |
| The Weinstein Company / Pathé |
| StudioCanal |
| 20th Century Fox / Pathé |
| Focus Features / Universal Pictures |
| Pathé / Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 1969 | Report: St - Ann's Nottingham (Documentary film) | ||
| 1972 | A Day Out | ||
| 1973 | The Cricket Match | ||
| 1975 | Daft as a Bush | ||
| Three Men in a Boat | |||
| 1977 | Black Christmas | ||
| 1978 | Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf | ||
| Doris and Doreen | |||
| Afternoon Off | |||
| One Fine Day | |||
| 1980 | Bloody Kids | ||
| 1982 | Walter | ||
| 1983 | Walter and June | ||
| The Last Company Car | |||
| 1984 | December Flower | ||
| 1987 | Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door | ||
| 1993 | The Snapper | ||
| 2000 | Fail Safe | ||
| 2003 | The Deal | ||
| 2014 | Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight | ||
TV series
| 2 episodes |
| 5 episodes |
| 4 episodes |
| Episode: "#1.15" |
| Episode: "England, Their England" |
| Episode: "Match of the Day" |
| 3 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| 2 episodes; also producer |
| 3 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| 20 episodes; Also executive producer |
| Episode: "2015" |
Miniseries
| A Very English Scandal | |||
| Quiz | |||
| The Regime | |||
In 1990, Frears earned his first Academy Award nomination for directing the film The Grifters. In 2006, he earned his second nomination for The Queen. At the Primetime Emmy Awards, he was nominated for Fail Safe (2000), Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013), and A Very English Scandal (2019), before winning for State of the Union (2019). He has also been acknowledged by the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and Toronto film festivals.
Honors include:
| +Awards and nominations received for films directed by Frears | |||||||
| 1971 | Gumshoe | 2 | |||||
| 1984 | The Hit | 1 | |||||
| 1985 | My Beautiful Laundrette | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 1987 | Prick Up Your Ears | 3 | 1 | ||||
| 1988 | Dangerous Liaisons | 7 | 3 | 10 | 2 | ||
| 1990 | The Grifters | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2000 | High Fidelity | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2002 | Dirty Pretty Things | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 2005 | Mrs Henderson Presents | 2 | 4 | 3 | |||
| 2006 | The Queen | 6 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 2013 | Philomena | 4 | 4 | 3 | |||
| 2016 | Florence Foster Jenkins | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 2017 | Victoria & Abdul | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
Directed Academy Award performances
Under Frears' direction, these actors have received Academy Awards nominations (and wins) for their performances in their respective roles.
| + !Year !Performer !Film !Result | |||
| 1988 | Glenn Close | Dangerous Liaisons | |
| 1990 | Anjelica Huston | The Grifters | |
| 2005 | Judi Dench | Mrs Henderson Presents | |
| 2006 | Helen Mirren | The Queen | |
| 2013 | Judi Dench | Philomena | |
| 2016 | Meryl Streep | Florence Foster Jenkins | |
| 1988 | Michelle Pfeiffer | Dangerous Liaisons | |
| 1990 | Annette Bening | The Grifters | |
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