Richard Marquand
Richard Marquand ( born April 17, 1938 in Cardiff, Wales, † September 4, 1987 in Los Angeles, California, United States) was a British film director, screenwriter and film producer.
Filmmaking
Marquand, who also worked under the pseudonym Jannis Laux, was educated at the University of Aix -Marseille and at King 's College. During his military service he studied Mandarin and was later stationed in Hong Kong. He began his career at the BBC, for whom he filmed in his directorial debut, Christopher Marlowe's Edward II with Ian McKellen in the title role. Next, he turned the two-part documentary The Search for the Nile, which was nominated for a Golden Globe. He made his feature film debut with the 1978 horror film The House of Satan with Sam Elliott. In 1981, he filmed the thriller The Needle by Ken Follett. This film impressed George Lucas so that he antrug Marquant the Director of The Return of the Jedi. He then staged love Corner with Karen Allen in the lead role as well as the thriller The knife with Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close.
Richard Marquand died at the age of 49 of a heart attack, his last film Hearts of Fire with Bob Dylan in the lead role was released posthumously. His son James Marquand also works as a director.