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Herbert Wilcox

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Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

and director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

Early life

Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

. During the First World War, he served in the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

Film career

He joined the film business in 1919 forming with his war gratuity his own company Astra Films producing and directing his first film, The Wonderful Story in a makeshift studio in Kew. He formed a company, Graham Wilcox Productions, with Jack Graham Cutts in 1920. He set up the British National Company, which was later absorbed into British International Pictures. He also set up a "British Hollywood" at Elstree Studios

Elstree Studios

"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...

.

Although Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

's Blackmail
Blackmail (1929 film)
Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard, and featuring Donald Calthrop, Sara Allgood and Charles Paton. The film is based on the play Blackmail by Charles Bennett, as adapted by Hitchcock, with dialogue by...

is generally regarded as the first film with sound, Wilcox's Black Waters was trade-shown several weeks earlier. He produced more than a hundred films, of which he directed half. In the 1950s he planned to make a biopic about Van Gogh starring Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...

, but it was never made. "His film production team were never laid off, even during the worst depressions of the British film industry. They were on full salary 52 weeks of the year."

Notable postwar films included Odette (1951), Trent's Last Case (1952), Yangtse Incident (1956) and The Lady is a Square (1959). His film company failed in the 1960s and he was declared bankrupt in 1964 but their finances were rescued by the success of the musical play Charlie Girl in which Dame Anna Neagle played and which ran for five years.

Personal life

He married in 1920 Maude Bower, with whom he had four children, and, secondly, to actress Anna Neagle

Anna Neagle

Forming a professional alliance with Wilcox, Neagle played her first starring film role in the musical Goodnight Vienna , again with Jack Buchanan. With this film Neagle became an overnight favourite...

on 9 August 1943. His second marriage was childless.

Prior to his death aged 87 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

after a long illness, he donated four National Film Awards to the Glebelands Retirement Home in Wokingham

Wokingham

Wokingham is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire in South East England about west of central London. It is about east-southeast of Reading and west of Bracknell. It spans an area of and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 30,403...

Awards

In 1937, he won the Nations Cup

Nations Cup

The Nations Cup is a rugby union competition that was first held in 2006 at Estádio Universitário in Lisbon with Argentina A, Italy A, Portugal and Russia taking part...

for best premiere for Victoria the Great
Victoria the Great
Victoria the Great is a 1937 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook and Walter Rilla. The film biography of Queen Victoria concentrating initially on the early years of her reign with her marriage to Prince Albert and her subsequent rule after...

.

Selected filmography

Director