Roy Ward Baker
Roy Ward Baker was an English film director born in London on 19 December 1916. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for best foreign English language film in 1959. His later career was varied, and included many horror films and television shows.
Baker's early career, from 1934 to 1939, was spent working for Gainsborough Pictures, a British film production company based in Islington, North London, famous for its prestige productions. His first jobs were menial - making tea for crew members, for example - but by 1938 he had risen through the ranks to work as assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.
He served in the army during World War II, until transferring to the Army Kinematograph Unit in 1943 in order to make better use of skills developed in his pre-war career producing documentaries and teaching materials for troops. One of his superiors at the time was novelist Eric Ambler. It was he who gave Baker his first big break directing The October Man, from an Ambler screenplay, in 1947. Ambler also adapted Walter Lord's A Night to Remember for Baker's 1958 screen version.
During the early 1950s, Baker worked for three years in Hollywood where he directed Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and Robert Ryan in 3D film noir Inferno (1953). He returned to the UK for the latter part of the decade, but defected to television in the early 1960s.
He directed episodes of The Avengers, The Saint and The Champions - all adventure series created with an eye on the American market. The low-budget ethic of television production made him well-suited to his next career move into cheaply produced but lavish-looking British horror films. He directed, amongst others, Quatermass and the Pit (1967) The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Scars of Dracula (1970) for Hammer, and Asylum (1972) for Amicus.
In the latter part of the 1970s he returned to television, and throughout the 1980s continued to work in Television. He retired in 1992.
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Movies (51)
The Saint Steps In... To Television
2008 · Himself
Hammer Horror: A Fan's Guide
2008 · Self
Inside the Fear Factory
2003 · Himself
Von Werra
2002 · Self
A Profile of Hitchcock: The Early Years
2000 · Self
Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror
1994 · Self, Thanks
Hitchcock: Alfred the Great
1994 · Self
The Masks of Death
1984 · Director
The Monster Club
1981 · Director
Death Becomes Me
1979 · Director
The Switch
1976 · Director
Fists of Fire
1975 · Self
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
1974 · Director
Mission: Monte Carlo
1974 · Director
And Now the Screaming Starts!
1973 · Director
The Vault of Horror
1973 · Director
Asylum
1972 · Director
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde
1971 · Director
Scars of Dracula
1970 · Director
The Vampire Lovers
1970 · Director
Foreign Exchange
1970 · Director
The Spy Killer
1969 · Director
Moon Zero Two
1969 · Director
The Fiction Makers
1968 · Director
The Anniversary
1968 · Director
Quatermass and the Pit
1967 · Director
Two Left Feet
1963 · Director, Screenplay
The Valiant
1962 · Director
Flame in the Streets
1961 · Director, Producer
The Singer Not the Song
1961 · Producer, Director
A Night to Remember
1958 · Director
The One That Got Away
1957 · Director
Tiger in the Smoke
1956 · Director
Jacqueline
1956 · Director
Passage Home
1955 · Director
Inferno
1953 · Director
Night Without Sleep
1952 · Director
Don't Bother to Knock
1952 · Director
The House in the Square
1951 · Director
Highly Dangerous
1950 · Director
Morning Departure
1950 · Director
Paper Orchid
1949 · Director
The Weaker Sex
1948 · Director
The October Man
1947 · Director
What's the Next Job?
1945 · Director
Read All About It
1945 · Director
Night Train to Munich
1940 · Second Unit Director
The Lady Vanishes
1938 · Assistant Director
Tudor Rose
1936 · Production Assistant
First Offence
1936 · Production Assistant
Heat Wave
1935 · Production Assistant
TV shows (22)
A History of Horror
2010 · Self
Sodankylä Forever
2010 · Self
Saracen
1989 · Director
Fairly Secret Army
1984 · Director
The Irish R.M.
1983 · Director
Q.E.D.
1982 · Director
The Flame Trees of Thika
1981 · Director
Minder
1979 · Director
Danger UXB
1979 · Director
Return of the Saint
1978 · Director
The Protectors
1972 · Director
The Persuaders!
1971 · Director
Jason King
1971 · Director
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
1969 · Director
Department S
1969 · Director
Journey to the Unknown
1968 · Director
The Champions
1968 · Director
The Baron
1966 · Director
Gideon's Way
1965 · Director
The Human Jungle
1963 · Director
The Saint
1962 · Director
The Avengers
1961 · Director