John Boorman

Life and career

Early years and education

Boorman was born in Shepperton, Middlesex, England, the son of pub landlord George Boorman and his wife, Ivy (née Chapman), daughter of another pub owner in the East End of London. George Boorman was of Dutch parentage; he served as a captain in the British Indian Army during World War I, and later worked for the founder of Shell Oil. Boorman's paternal grandfather, an inventor, "made and lost several fortunes during his lifetime". Although not Roman Catholic, after failing the eleven-plus he was sent to be educated at the Salesian School in Chertsey, Surrey.

Career

Boorman was conscripted for military service and became a clerical instructor in the British Army. He did not serve in the Korean War, but once faced court-martial for "seducing a soldier from the course of his duty" by criticising the war to his trainees; this was abandoned when Boorman showed that The Times newspaper was the source of all his comments. After army service he worked as a drycleaner and journalist in the late 1950s. He ran the newsrooms at Southern Television in Southampton and Dover before moving into television documentary filmmaking, eventually becoming head of the BBC's Bristol-based documentary unit. In 1963 he wrote and directed a documentary about professional football, Six Days to Saturday, which focused on a week in the life of Swindon Town, a club in England's second division.

Having caught the attention of a producer, David Deutsch, Boorman was offered the chance to direct a film aimed at repeating the success of Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night (1964): Catch Us If You Can (1965) is about another pop group, the Dave Clark Five. While it was not as successful commercially as Lester's film was, it drew good reviews from distinguished critics such as Pauline Kael and Dilys Powell, and smoothed Boorman's way into the film industry.

Boorman was drawn to Hollywood for the opportunity to make more ambitious films and in Point Blank (1967), based on a novel by Richard Stark (a pen name of Donald E. Westlake), he brought a stranger's vision to the decaying fortress of Alcatraz and the proto-hippy world of the West Coast of the United States. Lee Marvin gave the unknown director his full support, telling studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that he deferred all his approvals on the project to Boorman. After Point Blank, Boorman worked with Marvin and Toshiro Mifune on the robinsonade Hell in the Pacific (1968), which tells a fable of two representative soldiers stranded on an island.

After returning to the United Kingdom, Boorman made Leo the Last (1970), influenced by Federico Fellini and starring Fellini regular, Marcello Mastroianni. It won Boorman a Best Director Award at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.

Boorman achieved much greater resonance with Deliverance (1972), adapted from a novel by James Dickey. It depicted the ordeal of four urban men, played by Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty, who encounter danger from an unexpected quarter while whitewater-rafting through the Appalachian backwoods. The film became Boorman's first true box office success and earned him several award nominations.

Personal life

Boorman was a longtime resident of Ireland and lived in Annamoe, County Wicklow, close to the Glendalough twin lakes. In 2022, he put his property up for sale, intending to move to Surrey, England, where his son Charley lived. According to a 2012 interview, he was recently divorced. By 2020, he was married to his third wife.

He has seven children.

His son, Charley Boorman, has a career as an actor but reached a wider audience when he and actor Ewan McGregor made a televised motorbike trip across Europe, Central Asia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and the Midwest US during 2004. His daughter Katrine Boorman (Igrayne in Excalibur) works as an actress in France. Another daughter, Telsche, co-wrote the screenplay for Where the Heart Is with Boorman. She died of ovarian cancer in 1996 at the age of 36. She had been married to the journalist Lionel Rotcage, the son of French singer Régine, and they had a daughter together.

Boorman was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1994 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry. In 2004, Boorman was also made a Fellow of BAFTA and in 2013 he received a Fellowship from the British Film Institute, an organisation he had previously served as a Governor. Boorman was knighted in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to film.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Best Picture (1973) (Deliverance) – Nominated

Best Director (1973) (Deliverance) – Nominated

Best Picture (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

Best Director (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

Best Original Screenplay (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

British Academy Film Awards

Best Film (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

Best Original Screenplay (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

BAFTA Fellowship (2004) – Won

Cannes Film Festival

Best Director Award (1970) – Won

Best Director Award (1998) – Won

Cinema for Peace

The Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Film of the Year (2004) (In My Country) – Won

Golden Globe Awards

Best Director (1973) (Deliverance) – Nominated

Best Director (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

Best Screenplay (1988) (Hope and Glory) – Nominated

Works

Selected filmography

Film

Short film

Bibliography

Boorman, John, with Bill Stair (1974) Zardoz (novel)

Boorman, John (1985). Money into Light: The Emerald Forest: A Diary. London: Faber and Faber.

Boorman, John (1992). "Bright Dreams, Hard Knocks: A Journal for 1991". Projections: A Forum for Film Makers. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571168286.

Boorman, John (2003). Adventures of a Suburban Boy. London: Faber and Faber.

Boorman, John (2016). Crime of Passion. Liberties Press.

Boorman, John (2020). Conclusions. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-5713-5379-8.

Boorman, John (2020). John Boorman's Nature Diary One Eye, One Finger. Dublin: Liliput Press. ISBN 978-1-8435-1795-5.