Los Angeles, July 27: Oscar-winning British director John Schlesinger died in a Palm Springs, California hospital on Friday (July 25) after a career that tackled sexual taboos in such films as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Midnight Cowboy" and helped to end a cinematic age of innocence. 77-year-old Schlesinger, who suffered a debilitating stroke more than two years ago, was taken off life support on Thursday (July 24) and died early Friday (July 25) morning, publicist Ronni Chasen said.


The director helped to make stars of actors like Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. A homosexual himself, he is also credited as one of the key figures in the emergence of gay cinema.


The son of a London doctor who started making home movies at the age of 11, Schlesinger made a dramatic Hollywood debut in 1969 with "Midnight Cowboy." The emotionally wrenching tale of an unlikely friendship between a stud and a street urchin on the seamier side of New York became the first movie originally rated "X" to win an Oscar and also garnered a best director Oscar for Schlesinger. It also launched the career of Jon Voight and helped cement the star status of Dustin Hoffman.


Schlesinger later called "Midnight Cowboy" an "extraordinary, unbelievable success" and used it as a springboard for an even more edgy adult drama "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (1971) that dealt in frank terms with the triangle of a bisexual man, his older gay lover and his mistress and featured one of the screen's first same-sex kisses. Social taboos and gritty realism were familiar territory for Schlesinger, who described "Sunday Bloody Sunday" as largely autobiographical.


After an apprenticeship in the 1950s at the BBC, he made his feature film debut in 1962 with "A Kind of Loving," starring the unknown Bates. It explored love in the new cinematic territory of working class northern Britain and incurred the wrath of censors for scenes in which characters bought condoms and read semi-pornographic magazines. His third feature "Darling" (1965) -- a satire on Swinging Sixties London -- made a star out of Christie and earned three Oscars. Schlesinger's follow-ups to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" -- the films "Day of the Locust" (1975) and "Marathon Man" (1976) could hardly have been more different and set the tone for a future that alternated small, thoughtful movies with big Hollywood pictures, award-winning dramas for British television and directing opera.



He underwent heart surgery in 2000 and later suffered a stroke at his home in the California desert resort of Palm Springs. Nothing in his output of some 23 movies proved quite the talking points of "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" as Schlesinger reflected wryly in a March 2000 interview promoting "The Next Best Thing" starring Madonna.
John Schlesinger - Filmography
Next Best Thing, The (2000) ... Director
Twilight of the Golds, The (1997) ... Dr. Adrian Lodge
Eye for an Eye (1996) ... Director
Celluloid Closet, The (1996) ...
Cold Comfort Farm (1996) ... Director



Innocent, The (1995) ... Director
Pacific Heights (1990) ... Director



Madame Sousatzka (1988) ... Director ; Writer
Believers, The (1987) ... Director ; Producer



Falcon And the Snowman, The (1985) ... Director ; Producer
Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) ... Director



Yanks (1979) ... Director
Marathon Man (1976) ... Director



Day of the Locust, The (1975) ... Director
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971) ... Director



Midnight Cowboy (1969) ... Director
Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) ... Director
Darling (1965) ... Director



Billy Liar (1963) ... Director
Kind of Loving, A (1962) ... Director



Last Man to Hang, The (1956) ... Dr. Goldfinger
Divided Heart, The (1955) ... Ticket Collector
Sailor of the King (1953) ...



Bureau Report