Joseph Losey facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joseph Losey
Losey in 1965
Born	Joseph Walton Losey III (1909-01-14)January 14, 1909 La Crosse, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	June 22, 1984(1984-06-22) (aged 75) London, England
Alma mater	Dartmouth College Harvard University
Occupation	Film director theatre director producer screenwriter
Years active	1933–1984
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Hawes ​ ​ (m. 1937; div. 1944)​ Louise Stuart ​ (div. 1951)​ Dorothy Bromiley ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1963)​ Patricia Mohan ​ (m. 1970)​
Children	2
Awards	1967 Accident Grand Prix Spécial du Jury Palme d'Or 1971 The Go-Between César Awards for Best Film & Best Director 1977 Monsieur Klein

Joseph Walton Losey III (born January 14, 1909 – died June 22, 1984) was an American director for both theatre and films. He also worked as a producer and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with a famous writer named Bertolt Brecht.

Later, he returned to the United States. In the 1950s, he was put on the Hollywood blacklist. This meant he was not allowed to work in Hollywood because of his political views. So, he moved to Europe, mostly to the United Kingdom, where he made the rest of his movies. Some of his most successful films were The Servant (1963) and The Go-Between (1971). These were written by Harold Pinter.

Losey's 1976 film Monsieur Klein won the César Awards for Best Film and Best Director. He was nominated many times for important awards like the Palme d'Or (which he won once) and the Golden Lion. He was also nominated twice for a BAFTA award.

Joseph Losey's Early Life and Career

Losey Memorial Arch (1901) was built to honor Losey's grandfather, a well-known lawyer in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Joseph Walton Losey III was born on January 14, 1909, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He went to high school there with another famous director, Nicholas Ray. Losey later attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University. He started studying medicine but ended up focusing on drama.

Losey became an important person in New York City's political theatre scene. In 1933, he directed a play called Little Old Boy. He also directed Jayhawker, a play written by Sinclair Lewis. A newspaper review said that the play was very wordy, and Losey's directing didn't always make the story clear.

In 1935, he visited the Soviet Union for several months to learn about Russian theatre. In Moscow, he took a film class taught by Sergei Eisenstein. He also met Bertolt Brecht and composer Hanns Eisler there.

In 1936, he directed Triple-A Plowed Under on Broadway. This play was part of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project. He then directed another show called Injunction Granted.

Losey served in the U.S. military during World War II. He was discharged in 1945. From 1946 to 1947, Losey worked with Bertolt Brecht, who was living in Los Angeles. They prepared for a play called Galileo (Life of Galileo). Losey and Brecht directed it together, with Charles Laughton playing the main role. The play opened in July 1947 in Beverly Hills.

In October 1947, Losey went with Brecht to Washington D.C. for Brecht's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Brecht left the U.S. the next day. Losey then directed Galileo again in New York City. Many years later, when Losey was living in England, he directed a film version of Brecht's play Galileo (1975).

Losey's first feature film was The Boy with Green Hair (1947). It starred a young Dean Stockwell as Peter, a war orphan whose hair mysteriously turns green. This makes him an outcast.

Later, Losey was hired to direct a new version of the classic film M (1931). His new version, M, was released in 1951 and was set in Los Angeles.

Facing Challenges: Politics and Moving to Europe

During the 1930s and 1940s, Losey knew many people who had left-wing political ideas. Some were communists or people who would become communists. He worked with Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler, both of whom were investigated by HUAC. Losey had even written a letter to help Eisler get a visa to live in the U.S.

Losey had also worked on the Federal Theatre Project, which HUAC often investigated. One of the plays he directed, Triple-A Plowed Under, was called communist propaganda. Many of his Hollywood co-workers, like Dalton Trumbo, were also targets of HUAC.

In 1946, Losey joined the Communist Party USA.

Losey had a long-term contract with Dore Schary at RKO Pictures. But when Howard Hughes bought RKO in 1948, he started removing people with left-wing views. Hughes stopped giving Losey work but still kept him under contract. In 1949, Schary helped Losey get out of his contract. Losey then started working on films independently.

In 1951, Losey's name was mentioned by two people testifying before HUAC. His lawyer suggested he make a deal to testify in secret. Instead, Losey stopped working on his film The Big Night and left for Europe. His ex-wife also left the country. HUAC tried for weeks to make them appear, but they couldn't.

After working in Italy for over a year, Losey returned to the U.S. briefly in October 1952. He then went back to Rome and finally settled in London on January 4, 1953.

Career in Europe

Losey made his new home in Britain and started directing different kinds of films. His first British film was The Sleeping Tiger (1954), a crime thriller. He used a fake name, Victor Hanbury, for this film. This was because the movie's stars, Alexis Smith and Alexander Knox, were worried they would be blacklisted in Hollywood if people knew they worked with Losey. The Intimate Stranger (1956) also used a fake name. His films ranged from a historical drama called The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958) to a gangster film, The Criminal (1960).

Losey was supposed to direct X the Unknown (1956). But after a few days, the main actor, Dean Jagger, refused to work with someone thought to be a Communist. So, Losey was removed from the project. Another story says he was replaced because he was sick. Losey later directed The Damned (1963), a science fiction film.

In the 1960s, Losey began working with playwright Harold Pinter. They became good friends, and Pinter started a successful career writing screenplays. Losey directed three famous films based on Pinter's scripts: The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), and The Go-Between (1971).

• The Servant won three British Academy Film Awards.
• Accident won a special award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.
• The Go-Between won the top award, the Golden Palm Award, at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. It also won four prizes at the 1972 BAFTA awards.

In The Servant, a house helper slowly takes control of his rich boss's life. In The Go-Between, a young boy becomes a secret messenger for a love affair between a farmer and a rich girl.

Losey's films often looked very real, but The Servant mixed different styles. Accident and The Go-Between used special camera work, editing, and music to create unique ways of telling stories. Pinter's scripts had short, mysterious conversations. Losey often used busy and detailed scenes to show what was happening without words.

In 1966, Losey directed Modesty Blaise, a spy-comedy film. It was based on a popular comic strip.

Losey also directed Robert Shaw and Malcolm McDowell in Figures in a Landscape (1970). This action film was shot in Spain.

Losey worked with Pinter again on a script for a film based on A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust. However, Losey died before they could get enough money to make the film.

In 1975, Losey finally made a film version of Brecht's play Galileo, called Life of Galileo, starring Chaim Topol. This film was made in the UK.

Losey's film Monsieur Klein (1976) showed a day in France when Jewish people were arrested during World War II. He said he used different "visual categories" for filming: unreal, real, and abstract. This film helped show the story of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of French Jews in July 1942.

In 1979, Losey filmed Mozart's opera Don Giovanni in Italy. This film was nominated for several César Awards in 1980, including Best Director.

Personal Life

In 1964, Losey said he would love to work in America again if the right project came along. He told an interviewer before he died that he wasn't bitter about being blacklisted. He said, "Without it I would have three Cadillacs, two swimming pools and millions of dollars, and I'd be dead. It was terrifying, it was disgusting, but you can get trapped by money and complacency. A good shaking up never did anyone any harm."

His old college, Dartmouth, gave Losey an honorary degree in 1973. The University of Wisconsin–Madison did the same in 1983.

Losey was married four times. He had two sons. His son Gavrik Losey (born 1938) helped with some of his father's films. Gavrik's two sons, Marek Losey and Luke Losey, are also film directors. His other son, Joshua Losey (born 1957), became an actor.

On September 29, 1970, Losey married Patricia Mohan. Patricia Losey later helped adapt the opera script for Losey's Don Giovanni and a play for his last film, Steaming.

Joseph Losey died at his home in London on June 22, 1984. He passed away four weeks after finishing his last film.

In the 1991 film Guilty by Suspicion, a character named "Joe Lesser," played by Martin Scorsese, leaves Hollywood for England to avoid investigations. This character is based on Joseph Losey's experiences.

Filmography

Year	Title	Functioned as			Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
1939	Pete Roleum and His Cousins				Short film
1941	Youth Gets a Break
	A Child Went Forth
1945	A Gun in His Hand
1947	Leben des Galilei
1948	The Boy with Green Hair
1950	The Lawless
1951	M
	The Prowler
	The Big Night
1952	Stranger on the Prowl
1954	The Sleeping Tiger				Nominated- San Sebastián Golden Shell
1955	A Man on the Beach				Short film
1956	The Intimate Stranger
1957	Time Without Pity
1958	The Gypsy and the Gentleman
1959	Blind Date
	First on the Road				Promotional short for the launch of the Ford Anglia 105E
1960	The Criminal
1962	Eva				Nominated- Golden Venice Lion
1963	The Damned
1963	The Servant				Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year (10th place) Nastro d'Argento for Best Foreign Director Nominated- Golden Venice Lion Nominated- New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
1964	King & Country				Nominated- Golden Venice Lion Nominated- Nastro d'Argento for Best Foreign Director
1966	Modesty Blaise				Nominated- Palme d'Or
1967	Accident				Cannes Jury Grand Prize Nominated- BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film Nominated- Palme d'Or
1968	Boom!
	Secret Ceremony
1970	Figures in a Landscape
1971	The Go-Between				Palme d'Or Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Film Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Direction Nominated- Nastro d'Argento for Best Foreign Director
1972	The Assassination of Trotsky
1973	A Doll's House
1975	The Romantic Englishwoman
	Galileo
1976	Monsieur Klein				César Award for Best Film César Award for Best Director Nominated- Palme d'Or
1978	Roads to the South				Nominated- Taormina Golden Charybdis
1979	Don Giovanni				Nominated- César Award for Best Film Nominated- César Award for Best Director
1982	La Truite				Nominated- Golden Venice Lion
1985	Steaming

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Joseph Losey para niños