Дэвид Хеммингс: Жизнь и карьера актера и режиссера

English actor and director (1941–2003)

David Edward Leslie Hemmings (18 November 1941 – 3 December 2003) was an English actor and director. He is best remembered for his roles in British films and television programmes of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, particularly his lead roles as a trendy fashion photographer in the hugely successful avant garde mystery film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and as a jazz pianist in Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975). Early in his career, Hemmings was a boy soprano appearing in operatic roles. In 1967, he co founded the Hemdale Film Corporation. From the late 1970s on, he worked mainly as a character actor and occasionally as director.

David Hemmings was born in Guildford, Surrey, to a biscuit salesman father.

His education at Alleyn's School, Glyn Grammar School in Ewell and the Arts Educational Schools led him to start his career performing as a boy soprano in several works by the composer Benjamin Britten, who formed a close friendship with him at this time. Most notably Hemmings created the role of Miles in Britten's chamber opera Turn of the Screw (1954). His intimate yet innocent relationship with Britten is described in John Bridcut's book Britten's Children (2006). Although many commentators identified Britten's relationship with Hemmings as based on an infatuation, throughout his life Hemmings maintained categorically that Britten's conduct with him was beyond reproach at all times. Hemmings had earlier played the title role in Britten's The Little Sweep (1952), which was part of Britten's Let's Make an Opera! children's production. Britten's interest in Hemmings ceased very abruptly from the moment his voice broke, which occurred unexpectedly while singing the aria 'Malo' during a performance of The Turn of the Screw in 1956 in Paris. Britten was furious, waved Hemmings away and never had any further contact with him.

Hemmings then moved on to acting in films. He made his first film appearance in the drama film The Rainbow Jacket (1954). He could also be seen in Saint Joan (1957). Hemmings had bigger roles in Five Clues to Fortune (1957), The Heart Within (1957) and No Trees in the Street (1959), directed by J. Lee Thompson. He could also be seen in Men of Tomorrow (1959), In the Wake of a Stranger (1959), Sink the Bismarck! (1960) and The Wind of Change (1961).

Hemmings began to be known for playing young men, for example in The Painted Smile (1962) and Some People (1962). His first lead role was in the low budget teen musical Live It Up! (1963), He sought a fresh young face for the lead in the film. He found Hemmings, at the time acting in small stage theatre in London, although at their first meeting Antonioni told Hemmings, "You look wrong. You're too young." The resulting film was a critical and commercial sensation for MGM, which financed it, and helped turn Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave into stars. "I've been discovered half a dozen times," said Hemmings. "This time I think I've made it." After Blowup Hemmings accepted an offer from Warner Bros to play Mordred in the big budget film of the Broadway musical Camelot (1967). Hemmings costarred with Richard Attenborough in a comedy, Only When I Larf (1968), then was the sole star of an anti war film, The Long Day's Dying (1968). Both films flopped. More financially successful was Barbarella (1968), in which Hemmings had a key role. He played the lead in two period films for MGM: a comedy, The Best House in London (1969), and the historical epic Alfred the Great (1969), in which Hemmings had the title role. Neither film did well at the box office, with Alfred the Great being a notable flop. Hemmings was cast in further lead roles at the start of the 1970s : The Walking Stick (1970) with Samantha Eggar for MGM; Fragment of Fear (1970), a thriller; and Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971). Hemmings directed David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich in the drama film Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo (also known as Just a Gigolo) (1978). The film was poorly received, with Bowie describing it as "my 32 Elvis Presley films rolled into one". Later, after relocating to Hollywood, he directed a number of television films and series episodes.

From the mid 1970s on, Hemmings's acting work was mainly in supporting roles. In 1977 he appeared as Eddy in the film Islands in the Stream, an adaptation of Hemingway's novel of the same name, starring George C Scott. He also had support roles in The Squeeze (1977), The Prince and the Pauper (1977), The Heroin Busters (1977), The Disappearance (1977), Squadra antitruffa (1977), Blood Relatives (1978), Power Play (1978) and Murder by Decree (1979). He also returned to television in 1978 with a film for Granada TV directed by Ken Russell and written by Melvin Bragg: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, about Samuel Taylor Coleridge (played by Hemmings), was the second of two films in the Clouds of Glory series about poets.

Hemmings received an offer to play a supporting role in an Australian vampire film, Thirst. He starred in a TV film, Charlie Muffin then returned to Australia to feature in Harlequin. Hemmings then received an offer from Antony I. Ginnane to direct the Australian horror film The Survivor, based on James Herbert's 1976 novel of the same name, starring Robert Powell and Jenny Agutter. Hemmings directed Race for the Yankee Zephyr shot in New Zealand. While in New Zealand Hemmings played roles in Prisoners and Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Hemmings then moved to Hollywood. He played supporting roles in Man, Woman and Child (1983) and Airwolf (1984). He also worked extensively as a director of television programmes, including the action adventure drama series Quantum Leap (e. g. the series’ premiere); the crime series Magnum, P. I. (in which he also played characters in several episodes); and two action adventure series, The A Team and Airwolf (in which he also played the role of Doctor Charles Henry Moffet, twisted creator of Airwolf, in the pilot and the second season episode "Moffett's Ghost"a typographical error by the studio's titles unit). He once joked "People thought I was dead. But I wasn't. I was just directing The A Team." Hemmings also directed the puzzle contest video Money Hunt: The Mystery of the Missing Link (1984). He directed (and acted in) the television film The Key to Rebecca (1985), an adaptation of Ken Follett's 1980 novel of the same name. He also briefly served as a producer on the NBC crime drama television series Stingray. He directed the drama film Dark Horse (1992) and as an actor returned to the voyeuristic preoccupations of his Blowup character with a plum part as the Big Brother esque villain in the series three opener for the television horror anthology series Tales From the Crypt.

In later years he had roles that included Cassius in the historical epic film Gladiator (2000), with Russell Crowe, and in the drama film Last Orders (2001) and the spy film Spy Game (2001). He appeared as Mr Schermerhorn in the historical film Gangs of New York (2002), directed by Martin Scorsese. Hemmings met Hunnicutt while he was in America promoting Blowup, by which time his marriage to Ouvry was over. At their outdoor wedding, Henry Mancini conducted an orchestra and the Mamas and the Papas performed next to a swimming pool filled with doves dyed puce. His funeral was held at St Peter's Church, in the hamlet of Blackland near Calne, Wiltshire, where he had lived in his final years. He was buried in the graveyard of the church.