John Schlesinger

John Schlesinger (1926–2003) was a British film and theatre director and actor. His films include Midnight Cowboy, Sunday Bloody Sunday, and Marathon Man.

Midnight Cowboy: A 1969 drama directed by John Schlesinger about two men surviving on the margins of New York City. Its success made Schlesinger the first British director to win the Academy Award for Best Director.
British New Wave: A movement in British cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s focused on contemporary working-class life. Schlesinger’s early features share its interest in ordinary lives and social constraint.
Dustin Hoffman: An American actor whose screen roles include Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate and Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. Hoffman’s performance as Ratso Rizzo became central to Schlesinger’s best-known film.
Hollywood studio system: A system of film production and distribution dominated by major American studios, especially from the 1920s through the 1960s. Schlesinger’s career moved between personal British projects and large-scale American productions.
Sunday Bloody Sunday: A 1971 British drama directed by John Schlesinger about a love triangle involving a divorced woman and a gay doctor. Its restrained treatment of sexuality and relationships shows his command of intimate British drama.
Free Cinema: A British documentary movement of the 1950s that favored personal, low-budget films about everyday life. Its documentary sensibility helps explain the observational style of Schlesinger’s early work.
Jon Voight: An American actor whose film roles include Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy. Schlesinger directed Voight in the performance that made Joe Buck an enduring screen character.
British social realism: A film tradition portraying contemporary British life through ordinary people, social conditions, and realistic settings. It describes the approach most visible in Schlesinger’s early British features.
Marathon Man: A 1976 thriller directed by John Schlesinger, in which a graduate student becomes entangled with a former Nazi war criminal. The film shows Schlesinger directing a tense Hollywood thriller after his acclaimed character dramas.
British television drama: Dramatic programming produced for television in Britain, including live plays and filmed productions. Schlesinger directed television dramas before moving into feature films.

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Julie ChristieRelated: Schlesinger directed Christie in Darling and Far from the Madding Crowd.