Directing

Alan Parker

Born February 14, 1944 · Islington, London, England, UK

Died July 31, 2020 · aged 76

Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was a director, writer and producer. His feature films have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden Globes and ten Oscars. His films include Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments, Evita, Fame, Birdy, Angel Heart and Angela’s Ashes. He was founding chairman of the UK Film Council, a position he held for five year…

Known For

Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Burning · 1988

Mississippi Burning

MovieDramaCrime

Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his partner, a former sheriff.

Midnight Express

Midnight Express · 1978

Midnight Express

MovieDramaCrime

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Angel Heart

Angel Heart · 1987

MovieHorrorMystery

A down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orleans, and the swamps of Louisiana and its seedy underworld of voodoo.

The Life of David Gale

The Life of David Gale · 2003

The Life of David Gale

MovieDramaThriller

A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.

Pink Floyd: The Wall

Pink Floyd: The Wall · 1982

Pink Floyd: The Wall

MovieMusicDrama

A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.

The Commitments

The Commitments · 1991

The Commitments

MovieComedyDrama

Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.

Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes · 1999

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

The Road to Wellville

The Road to Wellville · 1994

The Road to Wellville

MovieComedyRomance

An unhappy young couple visit the infamous Kellogg spa in Battle Creek, Michigan while a young hustler tries get into the breakfast-cereal business and compete against John Kellogg's corn flakes.

Filmography

Sort

Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Burning · 1988

Mississippi Burning

MovieDramaCrime

Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his partner, a former sheriff.

Director

Midnight Express

Midnight Express · 1978

Midnight Express

MovieDramaCrime

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Director

Angel Heart

Angel Heart · 1987

MovieHorrorMystery

A down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orleans, and the swamps of Louisiana and its seedy underworld of voodoo.

Screenplay

The Life of David Gale

The Life of David Gale · 2003

The Life of David Gale

MovieDramaThriller

A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.

Director

Pink Floyd: The Wall

Pink Floyd: The Wall · 1982

Pink Floyd: The Wall

MovieMusicDrama

A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.

Director

The Commitments

The Commitments · 1991

The Commitments

MovieComedyDrama

Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.

Director

Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes · 1999

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

Director

The Road to Wellville

The Road to Wellville · 1994

The Road to Wellville

MovieComedyRomance

An unhappy young couple visit the infamous Kellogg spa in Battle Creek, Michigan while a young hustler tries get into the breakfast-cereal business and compete against John Kellogg's corn flakes.

Director

Birdy

Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam War. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?

Director

Fame

MovieDramaMusic

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.

Director

Evita

MovieHistoryDrama

The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, an Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.

Screenplay

Bugsy Malone

Bugsy Malone · 1976

MovieDramaAction

New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded "splurge gun". As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah who wants Bugsy for herself.

Director

Come See the Paradise

Come See the Paradise · 1990

Come See the Paradise

MovieDramaRomance

In this drama from director Alan Parker, on-the-lam Jack McGurn flees to Los Angeles and takes a job as a projectionist at a movie theater owned by a Japanese-American man. Jack falls for the owner's daughter, Lily, but they are forced to elope to Seattle when her father forbids the relationship. The couple marry and have a daughter, but when World War II breaks out, Jack is powerless to stop his new family's forced internment.

Director

Dad's Army

Dad's Army · 2016

A cinema remake of the classic sitcom Dad's Army (1968). The Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon deal with a visiting female journalist and a German spy as World War II draws to its conclusion.

Executive Producer

Melody

MovieComedyDrama

Two youngsters declare to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future but as soon as possible.

Original Story

Shoot the Moon

Shoot the Moon · 1982

MovieDramaRomance

After fifteen years of marriage, an affluent couple divorce and take up with new partners.

Director

Our Cissy

Our Cissy · 1974

An old man travels to London from the North Country, accompanied by his son, in order to find the truth about his daughter's suicide.

Director

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema · 1995

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema

MovieDocumentary

Stephen Frears and a quartet of film industry notables - representing different cinematic periods - drink tea and discuss ups and downs of British cinema.

A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema

A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema · 1986

A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema

MovieDocumentary

Documentary presenting Alan Parker’s view of British cinema with comments from Richard Lester and others and location report from King’s Lynn on the making of Hugh Hudson’s Revolution, starring Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, and Nastassja Kinski.

Director

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away · 2017

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away

MovieDramaComedy

Alice checks into a lonely hotel room at night and sets about making preparations to end her life, whilst obsessively re-drafting the perfect suicide note.

Associate Producer

The Evacuees

The Evacuees · 1975

The experiences of two young Jewish boys evacuated from Manchester to Blackpool during the Blitz.

Director

Footsteps

Footsteps · 1974

Gemma Jones stars as a woman suffering from hyperacusis, which affects the muscles of the ears. As a result she has become highly sensitive to noise, a condition that is only exacerbated by living in a crowded boarding house.

Director

No Hard Feelings

No Hard Feelings · 1976

No Hard Feelings

This short feature, an early directing credit for Alan Parker, shows the reality of life during the WWII air raids with none of the traditional 'Blitz spirit' so often portrayed. Eric spends the nights crammed into a brick shelter with his dad, sister and her screaming kids, and every bombardment brings tears over the loss of his mother in an earlier raid. When he learns his sweetheart is to be evacuated, he finally buckles under the stress.

Director

Short Cuts: Mississipi Burning d'Alan Parker

Short Cuts: Mississipi Burning d'Alan Parker · 2026

Short Cuts: Mississipi Burning d'Alan Parker

Original Film Writer

The South Bank Show

The South Bank Show · 1978

The South Bank Show

SeriesDocumentaryTalk

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

Magi-Nation

Magi-Nation · 2007

SeriesAnimationSci-Fi & Fantasy

Magi-Nation is an animated television series based on the card game Magi Nation Duel. The show premiered in Canada on September 8, 2007 on CBC Television and on September 22, 2007 in the U.S. on Kids' WB. A series of DVDs are set to be released on October 21, 2008 through January 6, 2009. The series has formerly aired in the U.S. on Toonzai on The CW, and formerly on Cookie Jar Toons on This TV, with the second season worldwide premiere airing on Cookie Jar Toons.

The Cry

The Cry · 2002

SeriesDramaCrime

Psychological thriller about a woman child-protection officer tramautized by her stillbirth who befriends a woman in hospital and then becomes convinced that the daughter is being abused.

Music