Ronald Neame

About Ronald Neame

Who is it?: Cinematographer, Director, Producer
Birth Day: April 23, 1911
Birth Place:  London, England, United Kingdom
Died On: 16 June 2010(2010-06-16) (aged 99)\nLos Angeles, California, United States
Birth Sign: Taurus
Cause of death: Accident fall
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Citizenship: United Kingdom, United States
Education: Hurstpierpoint College
Alma mater: University College School
Occupation: Director, cinematographer, producer, screenwriter
Years active: 1939–1991
Home town: London, England
Spouse(s): Beryl Heanly (1933–1992; divorced) Donna Friedberg (1993–2010); (his death)
Children: Christopher Neame (b. 1942)
Family: 3 grandchildren

Ronald Neame Net Worth

Ronald Neame was born on April 23, 1911 in  London, England, United Kingdom, is Cinematographer, Director, Producer. A British filmmaker who, over the years, worked as assistant director, cinematographer, producer, writer and ultimately director, Ronald Neame was born on April 23, 1911. His father, Elwin Neame, was a film director and his mother, Ivy Close, was a film star. During the 1920s, he started working at famous Elstree Studios. One of his first jobs was assistant cameraman for Alfred Hitchcock on Blackmail (1929), the first talking picture made in England.Neame became a cinematographer during the 1930s. In 1942, he and sound designer C.C. Stevens received a special effect Oscar nomination for One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), a film by the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger team. In 1944, after working together on In Which We Serve (1942), Neame, David Lean and producer Anthony Havelock-Allan formed a production company, Cineguild. The screenplays for its films Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946) received best writing Oscar nominations.After a fall-out with Lean and the demise of Cineguild in 1947, Neame turned to directing with Take My Life (1947). As a director, he would be quite versatile, touching genres like comedy (The Card (1952), Hopscotch (1980)), psychological studies (The Chalk Garden (1964)), musical (Scrooge (1970)), thriller (The Odessa File (1974)) and even disaster movies (The Poseidon Adventure (1972), the one that started the trend, produced by Irwin Allen). Under Neame's guidance, Alec Guinness won the best actor trophee at the 1958 Venice festival for The Horse's Mouth (1958), a comedy based on a book adapted by Guinness himself. Two years later, John Mills received the same award for Tunes of Glory (1960), also directed by Neame. In 1969, Maggie Smith got her first Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) under Neame's direction, and in 1970, Albert Finney got his first Golden Globe for his role in Neame's "Scrooge".In 1996, Neane was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition for his contributions to the film industry. In 2003, he published his autobiography, "Straight from the Horse's Mouth". Keeping up the family tradition, his son Christopher Neame is a movie producer and his grandson, Gareth Neame, works for the BBC. Ronald Neame died at age 99 of complications from a fall on June 16, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.
Ronald Neame is a member of Cinematographer

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Ronald Neame images

Biography/Timeline

1923

Neame's parents were the Photographer Elwin Neame and the Actress Ivy Close. He studied at University College School and Hurstpierpoint College. His father died in 1923, and Neame took a job with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as an office boy. Later, through his mother's contacts in the British film industry, Neame started at Elstree Studios as a messenger boy.

1929

He was fortunate enough to be hired as an assistant cameraman on Blackmail (1929), the first British talkie, directed by a young Alfred Hitchcock. Neame's own career as a Cinematographer began with the musical comedy Happy (1933), and he continued to develop his skills in various "quota quickies" films for several years.

1941

His credits as Cinematographer include Major Barbara (1941), In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944), and Blithe Spirit (1945). His camera work on One of Our Aircraft Is Missing got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Effects in 1943.

1945

Neame formed a production company, Cineguild, with David Lean and Anthony Havelock-Allan. During this partnership, he produced Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946), and Oliver Twist (1948). He shared Academy Award nominations for Best Screenplay for Brief Encounter, in 1947, and Great Expectations, in 1948, with co-writers Lean and Havelock-Allan.

1947

Neame made his directorial debut under the Cineguild banner, with Take My Life, which was released by British Producer J. Arthur Rank's General Film Distributors in the United Kingdom in 1947 and by Rank's Eagle-Lion Films in the United States in 1949. Neame began a transition to the American film industry at the suggestion of Rank, who asked him to study the Hollywood production system.

1951

Neame produced The Magic Box, a screen biography directed by John Boulting about the life of British camera Inventor william Friese-Greene, which was the 1951 film project for the Festival of Britain.

1952

He worked again with Alec Guinness (whom he had worked with on Great Expectations and Oliver Twist), this time as Director, in three films: The Card (1952), The Horse's Mouth (1958), and Tunes of Glory (1960). Neame has described Tunes of Glory as "the film I am proudest of". He received two BAFTA Award nominations for Tunes of Glory. Neame and Guinness worked again in the 1970 musical Scrooge with Guinness playing the ghost of Jacob Marley to Albert Finney's Ebenezer Scrooge.

1963

Neame also directed I Could Go On Singing (1963); Judy Garland's last film, co-starring Dirk Bogarde, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), which won Maggie Smith her first Oscar.

1972

Neame was recruited to direct The Poseidon Adventure (1972) after the contracted Director left the production. He later characterised The Poseidon Adventure as "my favourite film" because it earned him enough to retire comfortably. He enjoyed a long friendship with Walter Matthau, whom he directed in two later films, Hopscotch (1980) and First Monday in October (1981).

1986

Neame's final feature-length film, Foreign Body, a comedy starring Victor Banerjee, was filmed in England and released in 1986.

1993

Neame married Beryl Heanly in 1933. They legally separated in 1971 and divorced in 1992. The couple had one son, Christopher, a writer/producer who died one year after his father's death. Ronald's only grandson, Gareth Neame, is a successful television Producer, who represents the fourth generation of Neames in the film industry. Ronnie Neame's second marriage took place in Santa Barbara on 12 September 1993. His wife, Donna Bernice Friedberg, is also in the Business – a film researcher and television Producer, who worked on his 1979 movie Meteor. He referred to their meeting as a "coup de foudre".

1996

In 1996, Neame was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the film industry. He had homes in Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara, California. In 2003, Neame published an autobiography, Straight from the Horse's Mouth. (ISBN 978-0810844902)

2006

In an interview in 2006, he jokingly stated, "When people ask me about the secret to my longevity, I say the honest answer is two large vodkas at lunchtime and three large scotches in the evening. All my doctors have said to me, 'Ronnie, if you would drink less, you'd live a lot longer.' But, they're all dead, and I'm still here at 95."

2010

Neame died on 16 June 2010 after suffering complications from a broken leg. The break required two surgical procedures from which Neame never recovered.