James Ivory facts for kids

For other uses, see James Ivory (disambiguation).

Quick facts for kids James Ivory
Ivory at the 48th Venice International Film Festival in 1991
Born	Richard Jerome Hazen (1928-06-07) June 7, 1928 (age 97) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Oregon University of Southern California
Occupation	Film director producer screenwriter
Years active	1953–present
Partner(s)	Ismail Merchant (1961–2005; Merchant's death)

James Francis Ivory (born Richard Jerome Hazen on June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is famous for his work with Merchant Ivory Productions. This company was a partnership with Indian film producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

The team of Ivory, Merchant, and Jhabvala was known for making movies based on classic books. They often adapted stories by authors like E.M. Forster and Henry James. Their films are celebrated for being elegant, well-made, and having strong acting and interesting characters.

Merchant–Ivory started in 1961 in India. They made films with smaller budgets, such as The Householder (1963) and Shakespeare Wallah (1965). James Ivory began adapting classic novels into movies. Some of these include The Europeans (1979) and Heat and Dust (1983).

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for films like A Room with a View (1985) and Howards End (1992). In 2017, at 89 years old, Ivory won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me by Your Name. This made him the oldest person to win a competitive Academy Award.

Throughout his career, Ivory has received many awards. These include an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, and a Writers Guild of America Award. He also received a Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. Ivory wrote his autobiography, Solid Ivory: Memoirs, which was released in 2021.

Early Life and Education
Career Highlights
Personal Life
Filmography
Awards and Honors
See also

Early Life and Education

James Ivory was born Richard Jerome Hazen on June 7, 1928, in Berkeley, California. He was adopted soon after by Hallie Millicent and Edward Patrick Ivory. They renamed him James Francis Ivory. He grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

He studied fine arts at the University of Oregon and graduated in 1951. Ivory later attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. There, he directed a short film called Four in the Morning (1953). His master's thesis film, Venice: Theme and Variations, was a half-hour documentary. The New York Times named it one of the ten best non-theatrical films of 1957. He finished his studies at USC in 1957.

Career Highlights

Starting Out in Film (1959–1978)

Ivory met producer Ismail Merchant in New York City in 1959. In May 1961, they created their film company, Merchant Ivory Productions. Their professional partnership is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest in independent cinema history.

Before Merchant passed away in 2005, they made 40 films together. Many of these films won important awards like the Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote the screenplays for many of their movies. Ismail Merchant once said about their partnership: "It is a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory ... I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew, and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god."

Becoming Famous (1979–1993)

In 1985, Ivory directed A Room with a View, based on a novel by E. M. Forster. The film starred young Helena Bonham Carter in her first big role. It also featured famous actors like Maggie Smith and Daniel Day-Lewis. Film critic Roger Ebert praised the movie, saying it made people think about their feelings. The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including one for Ivory as Best Director.

The next year, Ivory directed Maurice (1987), another adaptation of a Forster novel. This romantic drama tells a story about finding love in Edwardian England, a time when society had strict rules. The film starred James Wilby and Hugh Grant. Many people found Maurice to be a very important film. Ivory won the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Director for this movie.

In 1990, Ivory directed Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. This film was special to him because it was about the kind of world he grew up in. The movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for Joanne Woodward.

In 1992, Merchant-Ivory made their third Forster adaptation, Howards End. It starred Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anthony Hopkins. The film was very successful and won three Academy Awards. These included Best Actress for Emma Thompson and Best Adapted Screenplay. Ivory also received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

The next year, they directed The Remains of the Day (1993). This drama was based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and reunited Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. The story is about a dedicated butler working for an English landlord before World War II. Critics loved the film, and it received eight Academy Award nominations, including Ivory's third nomination for Best Director.

Later Works (1995–2009)

In 1995, Ivory directed Jefferson in Paris, starring Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson. The following year, he directed Surviving Picasso, with Anthony Hopkins playing the artist Pablo Picasso. In 1998, he co-wrote and directed A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries.

He also directed The Golden Bowl (2000), based on a Henry James novel. In 2003, he directed the romantic comedy Le Divorce, starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts. In 2005, he directed The White Countess, written by Kazuo Ishiguro. In 2009, Ivory worked with Anthony Hopkins again on The City of Your Final Destination. This was the first Merchant Ivory film made after Ismail Merchant's passing in 2005.

Recent Career (2017–Present)

In 2017, Ivory wrote and co-produced the film Call Me by Your Name. This movie is based on a novel by André Aciman and was directed by Luca Guadagnino. It tells a romantic story set in Italy in 1983. Ivory was originally going to co-direct the film, but he ended up being the sole screenwriter.

The film was a big success with critics. Ivory's screenplay won him many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also won a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a Writers Guild of America Award. At 89 years old, Ivory became the oldest person to win an Academy Award in a competitive category.

In 2022, at 94, Ivory directed a documentary film called A Cooler Climate. This film uses footage he shot during a trip to Afghanistan in 1960. It premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2022. In 2023, a documentary about his life and work, James Ivory: In Search of Love and Beauty, was announced. It features interviews with actors like Helena Bonham Carter and Hugh Grant.

Personal Life

James Ivory has written about his relationships in his memoir, Solid Ivory. His business partner, Ismail Merchant, was also his long-term life partner. Their partnership lasted 44 years, from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. Ivory has owned several homes, including the Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer House and Mill Complex in Claverack, New York.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1953	Four in the Morning	Yes	No	Yes	Short film
1957	Venice: Theme and Variations	Yes	No	Yes	Short film
1959	The Sword and the Flute	Yes	No	Yes	Short film
1963	The Householder	Yes	Yes	No	First feature film he directed Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
1964	The Delhi Way	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary Also cinematographer and editor
1965	Shakespeare Wallah	Yes	Yes	No	Co-writer (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
1969	The Guru	Yes	Yes	No	Co-writer (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
1970	Bombay Talkie	Yes	Yes	No	Co-writer (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
1972	Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization	Yes	Yes	No	BBC TV documentary
1972	Savages	Yes	Idea	No	Screenplay based on an original idea by Ivory
1973	Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls	No	Yes	No	Short film
1975	Autobiography of a Princess	Yes	No	No
1975	The Wild Party	Yes	No	No
1977	Roseland	Yes	No	No
1978	Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures	Yes	No	No
1979	The Europeans	Yes	No	No
1979	The Five Forty-Eight	Yes	No	No	TV film
1980	Jane Austen in Manhattan	Yes	No	No
1981	Quartet	Yes	Uncredited	No	Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) (uncredited)
1983	Heat and Dust	Yes	No	No
1984	The Bostonians	Yes	No	No
1985	A Room with a View	Yes	No	No
1985	American Playhouse	No	No	Executive	Episode: "Noon Wine" Co-executive producer (with Ismail Merchant)
1987	Maurice	Yes	Yes	No	Co-screenwriter (with Kit Hesketh-Harvey)
1989	Slaves of New York	Yes	No	No
1990	Mr. & Mrs. Bridge	Yes	No	No
1992	Howards End	Yes	No	No
1993	The Remains of the Day	Yes	No	No
1995	Jefferson in Paris	Yes	No	No
1995	Lumière and Company	Yes	No	No	Anthology film (in directorial collaboration with Merzak Allouache, Gabriel Axel, Vicente Aranda, Theo Angelopoulos, Bigas Luna, John Boorman, Youssef Chahine, Alain Corneau, Costa-Gavras, Raymond Depardon, Francis Girod, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Hallström, Michael Haneke, Hugh Hudson, Gaston Kaboré, Abbas Kiarostami, Cédric Klapisch, Andrei Konchalovsky, Patrice Leconte, Spike Lee, Claude Lelouch, David Lynch, Ismail Merchant, Claude Miller, Sarah Moon, Idrissa Ouédraogo, Arthur Penn, Lucian Pintilie, Jacques Rivette, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Jerry Schatzberg, Nadine Trintignant, Fernando Trueba, Liv Ullmann, Jaco Van Dormael, Régis Wargnier, Wim Wenders, Yoshishige Yoshida and Zhang Yimou) Co-director of Segment #31: Merchant Ivory/Paris (with Ismail Merchant)
1996	Surviving Picasso	Yes	No	No
1998	A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries	Yes	Yes	No	Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
2000	The Golden Bowl	Yes	No	No
2003	Le Divorce	Yes	Yes	No	Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)
2005	The White Countess	Yes	No	No
2005	Heights	No	No	Uncredited	Co-producer (with Ismail Merchant and Richard Hawley) (uncredited)
2009	The City of Your Final Destination	Yes	No	No
2010	Arcadia Lost	No	No	Executive
2017	Call Me by Your Name	No	Yes	Yes	Co-producer (with Émilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito, Howard Rosenman, Peter Spears and Rodrigo Teixeira)
2019	American Marriage	No	Collaboration	Executive	Short film Written in collaboration with Giorgio Arcelli Fontana
2022	A Cooler Climate	Yes	Yes	No	Documentary Co-director (with Giles Gardner) Co-writer (with Giles Gardner)
2022	Chinese Laundry	No	No	Yes	Short film
2023	The Way It Was: Paris Restaurants in the 1970s	No	No	Executive
2024	Merchant Ivory	No	No	Executive	Documentary Also appears in the film as a subject as well as an interviewee

Awards and Honors

In 1985, A Room with a View was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It won three, including one for the screenplay. The film was also named Best Film by several groups, including the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). In 1987, Maurice received a Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival.

In 1992, Ivory directed Howards End. This film was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three. These included Best Actress for Emma Thompson and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also won Best Picture at the BAFTA Awards. The Directors Guild of America gave Ivory their highest honor for his work. Howards End also won a special prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

After that, The Remains of the Day was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

For his work on Call Me by Your Name (2017), Ivory won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also received awards from the Critics' Choice Awards and the Writers Guild of America. At 89 years old, Ivory became the oldest person to ever win an Academy Award in a competitive category.

In 2022, Ivory received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 17th Rome Film Festival.