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When still at his Quaker boarding school, aged 14, Michael Winner had a
column published in 30 local newspapers, interviewing stars from Louis
Armstrong to Laurence Olivier. At 17 he’d got into Cambridge and at 20 was
out with an Honours Degree in Law and Economics. He edited the Cambridge
University newspaper “Varsity,” his staff included Michael Frayn, Leslie
Bricusse, Frederic Raphael and Jonathan Miller. He worked as a film critic and
journalist in Fleet Street from the age of 15. He was film critic for (among
others) the New Musical Express and Films and Filming. He wrote TV reviews
for a group of papers even though his family had no TV and he never saw the
programmes he reviewed! He entered films full-time in 1956, directing,
producing and writing documentaries, comedy shorts and second feature films.
His well-known quotes include “A team effort is a lot of people doing what I
say” and “Who says actors are cattle, show me a cow that earns twenty million
dollars a movie!”
In March 2011 the American Cinematheque in association with the British
Academy of Films and Television Arts mounted a 3 day tribute to Michael
Winner in Los Angeles showing 6 of his films with Mr Winner appearing each
day. The screenings were at the Aero Theatre, Santa Monica and Grauman’s
Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1984 Michael Winner founded the charity the Police Memorial Trust to pay
tribute to officers slain on duty by placing memorials where they fell. Mrs
Thatcher unveiled the first one, to WPC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984. Every
successive Prime Minister has unveiled later memorials. His National Police
Memorial in The Mall, designed by Lord Norman Foster, was unveiled by the
Queen in April 2005. It was the first “new” memorial to be placed in the Mall
for over 100 years.
Michael initiated the Michael Winner/British Academy of Film and Television
Arts Best Beginner Award to recognise those at the bottom of the ladder,
runners, junior assistants, with prizes presented by Michael Caine. It was hailed
by the BAFTA Chairman as “A generous, imaginative and different initiative.”
His work was the subject of a hardcover analysis “The Films Of Michael
Winner” by Bill Harding, published by Muller. In 1991 he inaugurated a series
of Director talks at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He
reprised this at the American Film Institute and Washington. It is now a one
man show “My Life in Movies and Other Places”. He is much quoted in the
American Film Institutes standard work “Directing the film” by Eric Sherman.
His autobiography, Winner Takes All was a highly praised bestseller in 2004.
Michael does a one man show “My Life in Movies and Other Places”. He’s
done this at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and Washington, at
Oxford and Cambridge Universities and throughout the UK.
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Winner’s attention to detail is legendary. He often writes, produces, directs and
edits his own films. The editing credit on his films is Arnold Crust, a name
given to the fictitious father of a fictitious debutante Venetia Crust, one of
Winner’s earlier creations when he worked on a column on London’s Evening
Standard. Mr Crust is Michael Winner.
His first film was a short about Belgium, THIS IS BELGIUM. “We started in
Belgium, but it rained so much we had to finish it in East Grinstead,” he says,
“It’s the only film about Belgium largely shot in East Grinstead.” Although he
has a reputation of being fiery, he works again and again with the same filmcrews and the same actors and actresses. In the 55 years since he started
making films there has never been a day when an English writer, actor or
technician was not working for him. Even his American shot films were
brought back to London for editing and post-production work.
“This film’s very funny” said Orson Welles, working with Winner on I’LL
NEVER FORGET WHAT’S’ISNAME, and in the same Sunday Times
interview went on to say “Michael’s a very talented young man with a big future
ahead of him.” Bronson in an Observer interview said, “I admire particularly
the way he gets things done. He’s intelligent and he’s cheerful.” Burt Lancaster
in the Evening News said “He’s sharp, bold and without respect for convention.”
Paul Scofield interviewed in Photoplay said, “I found him extraordinarily
outgoing and sympathetic, full of the kind of energy which I find very exciting
in a director.” Stars from Sophia Loren to Faye Dunaway and Anthony Hopkins
have enthused in the press about the supposedly “difficult” Winner.
Faye Dunaway said “Michael’s got wonderful taste. He’s a wonderfully
pleasant man with a great sense of humour. I never expected to enjoy myself so
much. This (The Wicked Lady) is the only film I’ve ever truly enjoyed
making.” Anthony Hopkins said about working with him on a Chorus of
Disapproval “Winner’s rough and ready approach to film making suited my
temperament because it was fast. This endless talking in the theatre – I can’t
stand it. Michael cuts through all the nonsense. He’s a great showman.”
On Michael Winner’s This Is Your Life, Sir Michael Caine said “You’ve been a
friend to me, Michael, for a long, long time. Whenever I read a newspaper I
never recognise the person who is my friend. I’m here really to tell everybody
that you are a complete and utter fraud. You come on like a bombastic, illtempered monster. It’s not the side I see of you. I see a man who has a
tremendous artistic eye. You are an incredible legal brain. Before I even go to
my own lawyer I talk to you first. You’re extremely funny, very sensitive, very
kind and very generous. I hope everyone believes me when I say that you are a
kind, gentle, wonderful person. And I’m not kidding.”
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Winner’s output has been phenomenal. Some thirty feature motion pictures in
thirty years. Although sometimes accused of being regularly on schedule and on
budget (not strictly true) as if he were skimping to please the financier, the
opposite is true. “Firstly I always make sure I have a short script, most directors
shoot forty minutes to an hour they then throw away” says Winner, whose films
seldom exceed 100 minutes in length. “If we edit out more than five minutes
it’s a miracle.”
In films he started as a writer of thrillers for Anglo-Amalgamated and others
written when he was still at Cambridge, going on to be an Editor, Assistant
Director and then Producer-Director-Writer of a series of documentary films in
the 50s, leading to comedy short films with actors.
Like many of his contemporaries (Peter Yates, Dick Lester, Sidney Furie) the
pop music boom of the early sixties brought him his first feature film, a musical
PLAY IT COOL starring Billy Fury, Helen Shapiro and Bobby Vee.
He graduated to more serious work with Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall’s
script of WEST ELEVEN a look at the self-introspection of youth in the early
60s. For this he screen tested and chose Julie Christie to play the lead. The
Producer Daniel Angel said, “She’s a B-picture actress. Who’d want to fuck
Julie Christie!” “I would”, said Winner to those assembled in the screening
room. “That’s because you’re homosexual”, replied the Producer. “That’s
what you had to put up with in those days”, Winner said later. The same man
also turned down for Sean Connery who wanted the leading male role, because
he was “A B-picture actor”. Winner led the way in filming always on location
in the real places: “It is remarkably and scabrously authentic” wrote David
Benedictus in the Daily Express of West Eleven, “Michael Winner has probably
made the definitive work on bedsitterland. I commend the film,” said Alexander
Walker in the Evening Standard.
After his West Eleven producer debacle Michael decided to produce for himself.
Later in 1963 he made THE SYSTEM (US THE GIRL GETTERS), a film about
young men making the best of life in a tacky sea-side resort, was a surprise hit in
New York in 1964. “Michael Winner is the unheralded director of this
consistently intelligent and often brilliant low-budget import,” Newsweek
Magazine. “Winner gives a commanding end-of-summer air to every moment
of it,” Time Magazine. The film was an invited entry at the Beirut Film
Festival.
Winner’s next, was an anarchic comedy YOU MUST BE JOKING set on an
Army initiative test. “Full of inventive situations and cheerful guffaws,” Dilys
Powell The Sunday Times. Winner followed with one of the biggest
international British hits of the 60s, the incisive comedy who-dunnit THE
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JOKERS starring Oliver Reed and Michael Crawford. “Another of those
wonderful, eccentric British crime comedies,” Bosley Crowther, the New York
Times. “Michael Winner justifies his name.” THE JOKERS was nominated for
best English comedy film in the Golden Globe Awards.
In 1967 Orson Welles and Oliver Reed starred in I’LL NEVER FORGET
WHAT’S’ISNAME, an early look at man trying to opt out of the rat race to a
simpler life. “Memorable, illustrated with swift, funny, violent, candidly sexy
strokes that give the picture the towering virtues of honesty and force,” W.H.
Weiler the New York Times. Winner’s 1968 film HANNIBAL BROOKS was
an adventure comedy of a British Prisoner escaping with an elephant over the
Alps. “An engaging entertainment,” Margaret Hinxman The Sunday Telegraph.
The film starred Oliver Reed and Michael J. Pollard.
The Olympic Games was the background of Winner’s 1969 film THE GAMES
starring Ryan O’Neal, Michael Crawford, Charles Aznavour and Stanley Baker.
“What makes the film so disarming is Winner’s nimble pacing, the good-natured
tone, and above all the off-centre characterisations that make the story more than
a peg for the excellent sports photography,” Howard Thompson the New York
Times. Simon Tiffin in GQ wrote: “A classic, a gem of sport movie. When a
bill to the attention of this Olympic epic to a stunning climax as the marathon
runners race through the streets of Rome. The movie captures the brutality,
passion and tensions of top class athletics”.
In 1970 with the Western LAWMAN starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Duvall,
Robert Ryan and Lee J. Cobb, Winner moved to the USA, “Some cutting
dialogue and boiling psychological tension, the picture is long on sting as
sharply directed by England’s Michael Winner,” Howard Thompson wrote in
the New York Times.
Winner’s next film was with Marlon Brando. THE NIGHTCOMERS was an
invited Venice and San Francisco Festival entry. “It is excellently acted and
intelligently directed,” Thomas Quinn Curtiss, the New York Times. The film,
an English period piece by playwright Michael Hastings was the prelude to The
Turn of the Screw. Marlon Brando was nominated by the British Academy of
Film and Television Arts for best actor for his portrayal of Peter Quint. He and
Winner remained great friends until Marlon’s death. In his autobiography
Marlon said it was the only film he enjoyed making.
Winner went back to the West to start his association with Charles Bronson in
1971 for CHATO’S LAND, “Thoroughly satisfying, the characters are
fascinating to watch as are the gradual change in viewpoints,” Frances Herridge,
the New York Post.
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“Michael Winner has come up with another Winner in THE MECHANIC, it’s
hard-edged, brutal and absorbing, a suspense entertainment for all its existential
undertones,” wrote Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times about the film-noir
Charles Bronson thriller.
Then Winner reunited with Burt Lancaster, joined by Paul Scofield and Alain
Delon, for a psychological spy thriller, SCORPIO. “Michael Winner has
directed maintaining a tense pace and the required suspense throughout,”
Thomas Quinn Curtiss, the International Herald Tribune. Like all of Winner’s
films the locations were real, including the only time anyone has filmed in the
Central Intelligence Agency!
Other locales were Paris, Washington and
Vienna.
“THE STONE KILLER keeps turning into exciting cinema, crude often funny
and sometimes quite brilliantly idiomatic. It may come as close to inspired
primitivism as we are ever likely to get in the movies these days,” wrote Roger
Greenspun in The New York Times referring to Winner’s next Charles Bronson
thriller. Writing in the US National Board of Review Roy Frumkes said: “The
Stone Killer shows some of the year’s most lucid, headlong narrative filmmaking. Entertainment with all the aesthetics and complexity of art. Winner’s
two previous films The Mechanic and Scorpio were heavy with themes of
social, political and criminal paranoia. The present climate in this country is
laden with mistrust and Winner seems, in retrospect, to have been intellectually
very close to all of it!”
Winner’s legendary DEATH WISH starring Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Jeff
Goldblum and Olympia Dukakis followed. “I found myself rhapsodising in its
vicarious sense of urban justice. I applaud the cleverness with which Winner
and writer have stocked the cards in the hero’s favour,” Rex Reed the New York
Daily News. Judith Crist in New York Magazine wrote of “Winner’s fastpaced, exquisitely detailed direction.” One of the cinema’s memorable hits the
movie spawned a mass of imitations and sequels. DEATHWISH won the
Golden Screen Award in Germany in 1976 and was nominated in 1975 for a
Grammy Award for Best Original Score by Herbie Hancock.
Death Wish was the first film in the history of cinema where a citizen killed
other citizens and was the hero. It took Winner years to get it made. It only
happened because when Michael was driving to Kennedy airport at the end of
The Stone Killer with Charles Bronson, Bronson said to him, “What have you
got that we can do next?” Winner replied, “I’ve got a marvellous film about a
man whose wife and daughter are mugged and he goes out and shoots muggers.”
Bronson said, “I’d like to do that.” Winner said, “You’d like to do the film?”
Bronson said, “No, I’d like to shoot muggers.” As a result of Bronson’s
commitment to the movie Winner went to the Italian producer Dino Delaurentis
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who was not mired by convention and he took the film on. It was immediately
taken over by Paramount and became one of the biggest hits of the 70s.
DEATH WISH introduced two important stars in their first roles. Jeff
Goldblum played “Freak 1” and Denzel Washington played “Alley Mugger”.
Quentin Tarantino has a personal celluloid copy of Death Wish and rated it one
of the top ten films of all time in a magazine interview.
WON TON TON THE DOG WHO SAVED HOLLYWOOD, a comedy set in
Hollywood of the silent days in 1975 starred Madeleine Kahn and dozens of
legendary old time stars. It won the Films and Filming Award for Best Comedy
of The Year. This was followed by the horror thriller THE SENTINEL in 1976
starring among others Chris Sarandon, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Jose
Ferrer, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Walken. The film introduced Tom
Berenger and Beverley D’Angelo to the screen. “A smoothly-wrought shocker
that rivets attention right up to the last reel,” Bruce Williamson, Playboy.
THE SENTINEL won the best horror film award at the Academy of Science
Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films USA, Dick Smith won the award for best
makeup and it was nominated for the best writing award for Michael Winner
and Geoffrey Konvitz. Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Joan
Collins, Sarah Miles and Oliver Reed were in the all-star cast in Winner’s remake of THE BIG SLEEP. “If you’re looking for hard-boiled private eye stuff,
this is the place. Michael Winner has plunged into this project with relish,”
David Skerritt, the Christian Science Monitor.
Another thriller FIREPOWER starring Sophia Loren and James Coburn,
followed. “Gaudy and accomplished,” said Time Out. “Good fun and genuinely
exciting,” Films and Filming. DEATH WISH TWO, as big a hit as the first, was
Winner’s next, followed by a costume extravaganza THE WICKED LADY
starring Faye Dunaway, Alan Bates and John Gielgud. “All’s as it should be,”
wrote Alexander Walker in the Evening Standard, “Mr Winner shows us how
zestfully he can stand and deliver.” The WICKED LADY was an invited entry
at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982. Two more successful thrillers SCREAM
FOR HELP for Lorimar and DEATH WISH THREE followed. “The formula
still works,” wrote Archer Winsten in the New York Post.
Winner produced, directed and co-screenplayed Agatha Christie’s
APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH, starring Peter Ustinov, Lauren Bacall, Carrie
Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, Hayley Mills, Jenny Seagrove and David
Soul. “Like a month in the sun with old friends,” Vincent Canby the New York
Times, “The scenery is exotic, the unravelling of the murders most perplexing
and the actors in enthusiastic form.”
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Then came a film based on Alan Ayckbourn’s play A CHORUS OF
DISAPPROVAL, starring Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, Prunella Scales,
Lionel Jeffries, Richard Briers, Patsy Kensit, Sylvia Syms, Alexandra Pigg,
Barbara Ferris. Winner produced, directed and co-wrote the screenplay with
Alan Ayckbourn. “A giddy buoyantly British comedy,” Kathleen Carroll the
New York Daily News. “Sweet and touching with an extraordinary cast,” Mick
LaSalle, the San Francisco Chronicle. “An enormously entertaining British
import,” Mike McGrady, Newsday. Hal Hinson in the Washington Post wrote:
“Full of choice bits, some riotous some overwhelmingly bleak.” “Ayckbourn’s
winner is no loser,” Clive Hirschorn, Sunday Express. “Good fun,” Ian
Johnstone the Sunday Times. “Action, jokes, spirited and experienced players, a
good evening,” Dilys Powell Punch Magazine. A CHORUS OF
DISAPPROVAL won the critics prize for best film at the Cologne Film Festival
in 1989.
Michael Winner produced and directed BULLSEYE! starring Michael Caine,
Roger Moore, Sally Kirkland, John Cleese and Patsy Kensit.
“I enjoyed myself. The more predictable it got the more I laughed,” Ann Bilson
the Sunday Correspondent. “Caine and Moore romp through this frothy
misadventure with obvious enjoyment,” Richard Gilbert said in The European.
In 1993 Michael Winner’s film DIRTY WEEKEND from the novel by Helen
Zahavi was released to extraordinary controversy and media attention. Mandi
Norwood, Editor of Company called it “The most empowering vision of
femininity since Thelma and Louise… the most important release this year.”
William Leith in The Mail On Sunday wrote “A fast and entertaining black
comedy, Bella kills perverts, we are supposed to like her for doing it, and we
do.” Derek Elley in Variety said “A jet-black genre-bender of femme
vengeance, pic has the seeds of a cult movie. Winner plays up the unreality with
off-center framing and careful use of lenses, recalling Roman Polanski’s
efforts.” The film starred Lia Williams, Rufus Sewell, Sylvia Syms and Ian
Richardson. Lia Williams won the Award for Best Screen Newcomer from the
British Critics Circle.
In 1998 Michael Winner produced and directed and co-wrote PARTING
SHOTS, an ironic comedy about a failed photographer who is told he has six
weeks to live, and seeks revenge on people who have harmed him during his
life. The film stars Chris Rea, Felicity Kendal, Bob Hoskins, Ben Kingsley,
Joanna Lumley, Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg and John Cleese. “This is certain to
be THE West London comedy, fine entertainment,” Simon Bowers, The
Guardian. “A mixture of the Carry On films, the Ealing comedies and Death
Wish, it’s easy viewing. Joanna Lumley is hilarious. Oliver Reed is quietly
amused and amusing,” Brian Pendreigh, The Scotsman.” Matthew Norman in
the Daily Telegraph wrote: “A deft, satirical reworking of Death Wish.”
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Michael Winner is a founder Member and lifetime Honorary Member for the
Directors Guild of Great Britain and was the longest serving Council Member
until he resigned in 2006. He was also made an Honorary Member of the British
Academy of Film and Television Arts.
As an actor Michael Winner played a devious Lord working to get the right to
privatise prisons for director Danny Boyle in the BBC Film For The Greater
Good. He was in Steven Berkoff’s film of Decadence and in other movies and
many TV sketches. He has either starred in or starred in written and directed
many TV commercials. The most famous being his “Calm down dear” series
for the insurance company esure. He’s also done commercials for Doritos,
Kenco Coffee, The Mail on Sunday, News of the World, The Sun etc. His TV
show Michael Winner’s Dining Stars played peak-time on ITV. Earlier he
starred in the successful TV show Michael Winner’s True Crimes.
An avid collector of paintings and antiques, Michael Winner has also written
about art including dodgy practices in the sale rooms both in England and
America, and had many paintings (particularly by English illustrators)
withdrawn from London and New York salerooms when he recognised them as
fakes. His collection of original art for childrens’ books is one of the best in the
world. An odd combination of interests for a man most famous for his depiction
of American street life at its lowest level!
Michael Winner was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2001. He presented the
hit TV series Michael Winner’s True Crimes with audiences varying between 7
and 11 million viewers per episode. In 2010 he starred in his own ITV peak
time series Michael Winner’s Dining Stars. Michael Winner wrote for 9½ years
a full page political column in the News of the World. He also writes regularly
in the Daily Mail.
A book of his highly successful Winner’s Dinners columns in The Sunday
Times was first published in October 1999 by Robson books.
It was a
bestseller. A new updated and expanded paperback version was published by
Robson books in November 2000. A third version, The Winner Guide to
Whining and Dining was published in September 2002. Another guide book,
“Winner’s Dinners” was published in October 2009. Speaking of the book on
BBC’s Loose Ends Victoria Mather said, “I loved this. I loved the Winner
Guide to Dining and Whining because it’s such a fine comic creation. It’s one
of the finest pieces of comic writing and Michael Winner has no fear in laughing
at himself.” The New York Times wrote that Michael Winner in one stroke
changed the whole ethos and style of restaurant reviewing when he started his
column for the Sunday Times in 1993. Praising the current Winner’s Dinners
book Sir Michael Caine said, “Winner is barbaric in his judgement but
unfortunately he does know what he’s writing about.” Sir Roger Moore said,
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“How wonderful not to have to wait for each edition of the Sunday Times and
have a whole collection of Winner’s Dinners aka Winner’s Whines. Calm
Down Dears. Here’s your ideal Christmas, Easter, birthday gift”. John Cleese
wrote, “The older I get the more I love food. In fact nowadays I eat nothing
else. And even then only when I’ve discussed the suitability with Mr Michael
Winner.” Sir Michael Parkinson wrote, “Michael says all the things we wish
we’d said when faced with bad food and service. He’s a National treasure. I
would make him Lord Gastronomy.”
Michael Winner’s autobiography “Winner Takes All” was published by Robson
Books in September 2004. It was a bestseller. “This book is a gem, one of the
books of the year,” Lloyd Evans, the Spectator. “Wickedly funny,” Francis
King, the Literary Review. A rollicking, witty autobiography, always funny and
illuminating,” Christopher Silvester, Sunday Times. “I offer my most heartfelt
recommendation for Winner’s autobiography…. It’s uproariously enjoyable,”
Matthew Sweet, Independent on Sunday. Winner Takes All was published in
paperback in October 2005. In October 2007 JR Books published “Michael
Winner’s Fat Pig Diet.” This shows how he lost 3 ½ stone and kept it off! It
was immediately an enormous success. “It’s the most outrageous, hilarious and
oddly inspiring diet guide you’ll ever read” The Daily Mail “Michael Winner’s
Fat Pig Diet is a book like no other. This highly entertaining read beats any
regular diet book” Tessa Williams, The Independent “Michael Winner’s advice
is excellent. His plan is all very clear and rather inspiring” William Leith, Mail
on Sunday “The book’s interesting, the Fat Pig Diet. It’s as interesting as a
diary as it is as a diet. A fascinating insight into Michael Winner’s
extraordinary life” Michael Parkinson, ITV-1.
In October 2010 another Winner hotel and restaurant guide book containing
stories of Winner dining with stars was published by JR Books called
“UNBELIEVABLE” My Life in Restaurants and Other Places.”
Writing about “Unbelievable” Roger Lewis in the Mail on Sunday said, “A
rollicking and unbridled book. I don’t know anybody more attuned to the sheer
absurdity of life. Belligerent and opinionated, Winner is also valuable and rare.”
Dominic Lawson in the Independent wrote, “Winner is skilled at entertaining
starstruck readers with his stories. It’s a kind of eternal teenager’s delight in
Winner’s excitement at being in close proximity to Hollywood stars.” Giles
Coren, food critic of The Times, wrote, “I revere Winner as a God or a sainted
thing.” In the New York Times, Warren St John wrote, “The dawn of the age of
the blistering restaurant review in London came when Michael Winner was
invited to write about his dining experiences for the Sunday Times.” The Mail
described the book as “A deliciously indiscreet memoir.”
A second book of memories and catch-up items from the Sunday (Tales I Never
Told) was published in 2011 by Biteback Publishing. A book review by Roger
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Lewis in the Mail on Sunday said, “Thank goodness, here at long last is a book
that won’t ever have any truck with the traditional show business pieties and
hypocrisies. Michael Winner is thrillingly rude and forthright. Like Rhett
Butler, he genuinely doesn’t give a dam – and his book is hysterical.”
In January 2007 Michael Winner contracted a rare disease called Vibrio
Vulnificus in Barbados after eating an oyster from the warm waters of the Gulf
of Mexico. 95% of people who contract this are dead within 48 hours. Winner
was not expected to live and was pronounced dead five times. Two surgeons
advised he have his left leg cut off but one surgeon persevered and he still has a
left leg! He was in hospital for a great deal of 2007 and had 19 full anaesthetic
operations in 3 months. He is now writing a book about his experiences then
and afterwards called “Laugh After Death”. He continues writing his Sunday
Times restaurant and hotel column as well as contributing to various other
newspapers and appearing on TV shows both serious and flippant. In 2007
Michael Winner was offered an OBE by the Prime Minister for his work for the
police. He turned it down. Michael Winner now signs his letters and prints on
his stationary - Michael Winner MA (Cantab), OBE (offered but rejected).