A Celebration Of British Director Sam Mendes
By: Anders Frejdh
Published:
2015-06-13
A celebration of the much respected British director Sam Mendes, member of the 'James Bond family' since 2011.
With this special page,
From Sweden with Love would like to celebrate Sam Mendes on his 50th birthday.
"Dear Sam - very best wishes for you birthday. Keep up the great work."
About Sam Mendes:
Sam Mendes began his theatre career as Assistant Director at the
Chichester Festival Theatre and was the first Artistic Director of the Minerva in 1989. In 1992, he founded the
Donmar Warehouse where he was the Artistic Director until 2002.
While at the Donmar Warehouse, he directed
Assassins (Olivier and Evening Standard awards),
Translations,
Cabaret,
Glengarry Glen Ross,
The Glass Menagerie (Olivier Award),
Company (Olivier Award),
Habeas Corpus,
The Front Page,
The Blue Room,
To the Green Fields Beyond,
Uncle Vanya (Olivier and Evening Standard awards) och
Twelfth Night (Olivier and Evening Standard awards). In the West End:
The Cherry Orchard (Critic's circle Award),
The Plough and the Stars,
Kean,
London Assurance and
Oliver!, which ran for 4 years at the London Palladium.
In 2009, his transatlantic company,
The Bridge Project, debuted with productions of
A Winter's Tale and
The Cherry Orchard led by Simon Russell Beale and Ethan Hawke. The plays opened in New York and arrived at the Old Vic in May of 2009 after an international tour. In 2010, The Bridge Project entered its second year with productions of
As You Like It and
The Tempest, led by Stephen Dillane. The third and final season in 2011 had Kevin Spacey taking the lead in
Richard III. In 2013 his production of
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory opened in London's West End.
Film credits include
American Beauty (
Oscar® Best Director and Best Picture, Golden Globe, DGA Award),
Road to Perdition (2002),
Jarhead (2005),
Revolutionary Road (2008),
Away We Go (2009) and
Skyfall (2012) (2012).
He has been the recipient of the Director's Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in the theatre. He was made a CBE in 2000.
Sam Mendes returned to the Bond franchise in 2014 as director of
SPECTRE (2015).
Photo above:
Sam Mendes after the first press conference for
Skyfall in November 2011. Photo by David Dettman. © EON Productions. All rights reserved.
For more information about Sam Mendes, check out his profile on IMDB:
www.imdb.com/name/nm0005222/
Tags:
#james_bond_directors
#sam_mendes