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IMDbPro

Richard Lester(I)

  • Director
  • Producer
  • Writer
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Richard Lester
Richard Lester was one of the most influential directors of the 1960s, and continued his career into the 1970s and early '80s. He is best remembered for the two films he helmed starring The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965), the frenetic cutting style of which was seen by many as the predecessor of the music video a generation later.

Lester had made his name with the Oscar-nominated short subject The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) that he made with "The Goon Show" veterans Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. He then directed Sellers in The Mouse on the Moon (1963), which was produced by Walter Shenson. The Goons were a favorite of The Beatles, and when Shenson got the rights to make a movie with The Beatles, Lester seemed to be the ideal director for the project.

That project, "A Hard Day's Night", was not only a huge box-office hit but a major critical success as well. "Village Voice" movie critic Andrew Sarris, the American promoter of the "auteur theory" in America, described "A Hard Day's Night" as "the Citizen Kane (1941) of juke box musicals." Lester had arrived, and his next film, the Swinging Sixties yarn The Knack... and How to Get It (1965), won the Palme d'Or at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. He also directed the wildly satirical How I Won the War (1967), which came a year after the huge success of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), his adaptation of the smash Broadway play, which relied on the Keatonesque slapstick Lester had used so well in The Beatles films ("Forum" even featured Lester's hero Buster Keaton in a small but highly amusing role).

Aside from "A Hard Day's Night", the success of which relies as much on The Beatles themselves as auteurs (Lester claims that the script by Alun Owen was largely jettisoned during filming, and its scripted "quips" were replaced by the real things from The Beatles themselves), Lester's true '60s masterpiece is Petulia (1968) (1968). A corrosive look at the American upper-middle-class and the fragmentation of American society, "Petulia" is one of the great, if unheralded, American films. Propelled by the luminous presence of Julie Christie and the powerhouse performance of George C. Scott, "Petulia" was a success at the box office, although some critics were upset over the blackness of the comedy. It was to prove to be his last great film, as he stumbled soon after it was released. The Bed Sitting Room (1969), a Samuel Beckett-influenced satire based on a play (and script) by Spike Milligan co-starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke--from the smash revue "Beyond the Fringe"--was a resounding flop at the box office and among critics, and Lester found himself unemployable.

However, The Three Musketeers (1973), which he shot simultaneously with The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974) for producer Ilya Salkind, resurrected his career. When the Salkinds (Ilya and his father Alexander Salkind) were in the midst of filming Superman (1978) simultaneously with its sequel, Lester was hired as a supervising producer, then took over the filming of the sequel, Superman II (1980), when original director Richard Donner was fired. The sequel was a financial and critical success (as much as comic book films were in the early 1980s), and he was hired to direct the far-less successful Superman III (1983).

At the end of the 1980s, Lester returned to the storyline that had revitalized his career back in the early 1970s, filming a second sequel to "The Three Musketeers." However, after his close friend, actor Roy Kinnear died during the shooting of The Return of the Musketeers (1989), Lester seemed to lose heart with the movie-making business. He has not directed another film.
BornJanuary 19, 1932
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BornJanuary 19, 1932
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  • Nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards
    • 11 wins & 6 nominations total

Photos16

Paul McCartney, Richard Lester, and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Richard Lester
Ilya Salkind, Richard Lester, and Charlton Heston on the set of THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973)
Ilya Salkind and Richard Lester on the set of THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973)
George Harrison, Richard Lester, and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Richard Lester, and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Richard Lester in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Richard Lester, Ringo Starr, and The Beatles in Help! (1965)
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Richard Lester, Ringo Starr, and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Richard Lester, Walter Shenson, Ringo Starr, and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Richard Lester, Ringo Starr, and The Beatles in Help! (1965)
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Richard Lester, Ringo Starr, and The Beatles in Help! (1965)

Known for

Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964)
A Hard Day's Night
7.5
  • Director
  • 1964
The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
The Bed Sitting Room
6.1
  • Director
  • 1969
Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Faye Dunaway, Oliver Reed, and Michael York in The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Three Musketeers
7.1
  • Director
  • 1973
Christopher Reeve, Robert Vaughn, Annie Ross, and Pamela Stephenson in Superman III (1983)
Superman III
5.0
  • Director
  • 1983

Credits

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IMDbPro

Director

  • Paul McCartney's Get Back (1991)
    Paul McCartney's Get Back
    • Director
    • 1991
  • Paul McCartney
    • Director
    • Short
    • 1989
  • The Return of the Musketeers (1989)
    The Return of the Musketeers
    • Director
    • 1989
  • Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr., and Michael O'Keefe in Finders Keepers (1984)
    Finders Keepers
    • Director
    • 1984
  • Christopher Reeve, Robert Vaughn, Annie Ross, and Pamela Stephenson in Superman III (1983)
    Superman III
    • Director
    • 1983
  • Terence Stamp, Christopher Reeve, Sarah Douglas, and Jack O'Halloran in Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980)
    Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
    • Director (uncredited)
    • 1980
  • Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in Superman II (1980)
    Superman II
    • Director
    • 1980
  • Sean Connery and Brooke Adams in Cuba (1979)
    Cuba
    • Director
    • 1979
  • Tom Berenger, William Katt, and Jill Eikenberry in Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979)
    Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
    • Director
    • 1979
  • The Ritz (1976)
    The Ritz
    • Director (directed by)
    • 1976
  • Robin and Marian (1976)
    Robin and Marian
    • Director
    • 1976
  • Royal Flash (1975)
    Royal Flash
    • Director
    • 1975
  • Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Faye Dunaway, Oliver Reed, Michael York, and Frank Finlay in The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974)
    The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge
    • Director
    • 1974
  • Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, Shirley Knight, David Hemmings, Clifton James, and Roy Kinnear in Juggernaut (1974)
    Juggernaut
    • Director
    • 1974
  • Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Faye Dunaway, Oliver Reed, and Michael York in The Three Musketeers (1973)
    The Three Musketeers
    • Director
    • 1973

Producer

  • Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr., and Michael O'Keefe in Finders Keepers (1984)
    Finders Keepers
    • executive producer
    • 1984
  • Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, Christopher Reeve, Jackie Cooper, Sarah Douglas, Jeff East, Margot Kidder, Jack O'Halloran, Valerie Perrine, and Susannah York in Superman (1978)
    Superman
    • producer (uncredited)
    • 1978
  • The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
    The Bed Sitting Room
    • producer
    • 1969
  • John Lennon and Michael Crawford in How I Won the War (1967)
    How I Won the War
    • producer
    • 1967
  • Room at the Bottom
    • producer
    • TV Series
    • 1964
  • After Hours
    • producer
    • TV Series
    • 1958–1959
  • Peter Sellers, Kenneth Connor, and Spike Milligan in Son of Fred (1956)
    Son of Fred
    • producer
    • TV Series
    • 1956
  • A Show Called Fred (1956)
    A Show Called Fred
    • producer
    • TV Series
    • 1956
  • The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d
    • producer
    • TV Series
    • 1956

Writer

  • After Hours
    • writer
    • TV Series
    • 1958–1959
  • The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959)
    The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
    • thoughts by (as Dick Lester)
    • Short
    • 1959
  • The Barris Beat
    • Writer (1956)
    • TV Series
    • 1956
  • Curtains for Harry
    • Writer (as Dick Lester)
    • TV Movie
    • 1955

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative name
    • Dick Lester
  • Born
    • January 19, 1932
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Spouse
    • Deirdre Vivian SmithAugust 28, 1956 - present (2 children)
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Biographical Movies
    • 2 Print Biographies
    • 1 Interview
    • 1 Article
    • 1 Pictorial

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    He was interviewed at great length by fellow director Steven Soderbergh for a book, "Getting Away With It", published in 1999. In it he revealed that Sean Connery had never spoken to him after the box-office failure of Cuba (1979); that he had lost confidence as a director following the death of his friend Roy Kinnear, although he did not believe that any negligence had caused it; and also, surprisingly, that he had never actually enjoyed being a film director, although he did enjoy the editing process.
  • Quotes
    Filmmaking has become a kind of hysterical pregnancy.
  • Trademark
      Frequently has characters in the background making amusing comments about the main action.

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