Biography for
Joseph Losey More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

14 January 1909, La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

Date of Death

22 June 1984, London, England, UK

Birth Name

Joseph Walton Losey

Mini Biography

Belonging to an important family clan in Wisconsin, Joseph Losey studied philosophy but was always interested in theater and thus worked together with Bertolt Brecht. After directing some shorts for MGM, he made his first important film, The Boy with Green Hair (1948), for RKO. While he was filming The Prowler (1951) in Italy he was summoned to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, the congressional committee charged with "rooting out" Communist "subversion" in the motion picture industry. Unwilling to subject himself to the committee's well-known intimidation tactics, Losey decided to seek exile in Great Britain. In the following years he used a pseudonym--"Joseph Walton"--for his films, which were of minor quality. He regained his prestige with the thrillers Chance Meeting (1959), Concrete Jungle (1960) and Eva (1962). From that point on his films varied between top-quality work like Accident (1967) and much lower-quality projects such as Modesty Blaise (1966), which was a box-office success, and Galileo (1975), which wasn't.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Volker Boehm

Spouse

Patricia Losey	(29 September 1970 - 22 June 1984) (his death)
Dorothy Bromiley	(16 June 1956 - December 1963) (divorced) 1 child
Louisa Stuart	(19 October 1944 - 14 March 1953) (divorced)
Elizabeth Hawes	(1937 - 1944) (divorced) 1 child
Patricia Losey	(? - 22 June 1984) (his death)

Trivia

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 597-605. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Gave Edward Fox and James Fox their big breaks in films.

Attended the same high school in La Crosse, Wisconsin, as Nicholas Ray.

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972

Tried unsuccessfully to launch a project with opera legend Maria Callas. But Callas didn't liked the part he offered her. Something like an old star who desperately tries to return to her successful past. Callas considered herself at the time far too young for such a role, but said she was flattered by his offer.

Personal Quotes

I am frequently told that my films don't make money. Since I have averaged one film a year for thirty years - some of them expensive ones - I can only conclude that somebody is making money.

Films can illustrate our existence...they can distress, disturb and provoke people into thinking about themselves and certain problems. But NOT give the answers.

Film is a dog: the head is commerce, the tail is art. And only rarely does the tail wag the dog.

The productiveness of the director-actor relationship depends on the degree to which the actor trusts the director. Unless the actor feels he can safely risk everything he has to give without making himself ridiculous he won't try. He'll play safe until he knows the director will not let him make a fool of himself.

[on Ginger Rogers] Ginger Rogers was one of the worst, red-baiting, terrifying reactionaries in Hollywood.