Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Ken Russell

Director

Born - 3 July 1927, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
Died - 27 November 2011

The enfant terrible of British cinema, the wild-haired, wild-living Russell's best work combined flamboyance with intelligence. Coming to attention with eye-catching biopics of composers Debussy, Delius and Prokofiev for TV, Russell had already started a full-throttle assault on the cinema: French Dressing (1964), Billion Dollar Brain (1967) and then Women in Love (1969), his most famous and successful film, breathtaking, passionate and vividly entertaining. He continued making controversial and often commercial films until the late 1970s - The Music Lovers (1970), The Devils (1971), The Boy Friend (1972), Mahler (1974), Tommy (1975), Lisztomania (1975) and Valentino (1977) - although there was little to cheer his supporters thereafter: Altered States (1980), Crimes of Passion (1984), Gothic (1986), The Lair of the White Worm (1988). The Rainbow (1989), Whore (1991), then into TV work and Z movies such as The Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002) and a segment of Trapped Ashes (2006), his last. Four time married - the first to double-Oscar-nominated costume designer Shirley Russell - he died following a series of strokes.