MICHAEL D. FORD

1 Jun

(1928 - 31 May 2018)

The British-born art director and set decorator, who has died aged 90, trained at Goldsmiths College as an illustrator, then worked as a scenic artist before entering films via television. His first film credit was for Man in the Moon (1960) with Kenneth More, then The Anniversary (1968) with Bette Davis, Kelly’s Heroes with Clint Eastwood, The Alf Garnett Saga with Warren Mitchell, Up the Front with Frankie Howerd, Take Me High with Cliff Richard and Girl Stroke Boy with Peter Straker. Ford also worked on television during the 1970s, his credits including The New Avengers and Space 1999. Then came the big ones: two Star Wars pictures, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, plus his Oscar-winning contributions to Raiders of the Lost Ark. He worked through the 1980s and ’90s on many films, including The Chain, Return to Oz, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Living Daylights, Empire of the Sun, Consuming Passions, Licence to Kill, The Muppet Christmas Carol and GoldenEye. He scored another Academy Award for Titanic in 1997. His last film work was on Wing Commander in 1999.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

MICHAEL D. FORD

EUNICE GAYSON

GLYNN EDWARDS