Michael Apted

Apted was born on 10 February 1941 at Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury, the son of Frances Amelia (née Thomas) and Ronald William Apted.{{cite ODNB|title = Apted, Michael David (1941–2021), film and television director|last = Sinyard|first = Neil|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000382650|date = 2025}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/movies/michael-apted-dead.html |title=Michael Apted, Versatile Director Known for 'Up' Series, Dies at 79 |date=8 January 2021 |access-date=8 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |last=Genzlinger |first=Neil}} He was educated at City of London School and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied law and history.{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/movies/michael-apted-dead-coal-miners-daughter-up-series-director-dies-79/ |title=Michael Apted, Coal Miner's Daughter and Up series director, dies at 79 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=8 January 2021 |access-date=15 March 2021}}

Apted began his career in television as a trainee for six months at Granada Television in Manchester, where he worked as a researcher. One of his first projects at Granada would become his best known: the Up series, which began in 1964 as a profile of 14 seven-year-old children for the current affairs series World in Action. As a researcher and assistant to Canadian director Paul Almond, Apted was involved in selecting the children, who came from a variety of backgrounds and classes.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/michael-apted-up-series-british-life/ |title=A Thing or Two About Life |date=2 November 2020 |magazine=The Nation |access-date=7 November 2022 |last1=Pedersen |first1=Susan |author-link=Susan Pedersen (historian)}} Though originally conceived as a one-off documentary, the series has become an institution. When it was suggested that they revisit the subjects at ages fourteen and twenty one, Apted accepted the offer to direct and directed every subsequent episode in the series. It explores Apted's thesis that the British class system remains largely in place. It studies the participants based on the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man",{{Cite web |last=Weeratunga |first=Jann |title="Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man." – The Schools Reading Road Show |url=https://srrssa.co.za/give-me-a-child-until-he-is-seven-and-i-will-show-you-the-man/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |language=en-US}} looking at how they develop during their lives, compared to when they were seven. The series looks at the lives of these people over the years; the latest instalment, 63 Up, was produced in 2019.{{Cite web |last=Haddou |first=Jihane |date=8 January 2021 |title=Give Me the Child Until He Is Seven and I Will Give You the Man |url=https://jihanehaddou.medium.com/give-me-the-child-until-he-is-seven-and-i-will-give-you-the-man-9298fa4b35b5 |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Medium |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=8 January 2021 |title=Michael Apted, Director Of The 'Up' Documentary Series, Dies At 79 |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/01/08/955128728/michael-apted-director-of-the-up-documentary-series-dies-at-79 |access-date=9 January 2021 |publisher=NPR |language=en}} It won a Peabody Award in 2012 "for its creator’s patience and its subjects' humanity."[http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/institutional-award-michael-apteds-up-series72nd Annual Peabody Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109140205/http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/institutional-award-michael-apteds-up-series72nd |date=9 January 2021 }}, May 2013.

During his seven-year period of working at Granada, Apted also directed a number of episodes of Coronation Street, then written by Jack Rosenthal, among others. Apted and Rosenthal later collaborated on a number of popular television and film projects, including the pilot episodes for The Dustbinmen{{Cite web |title=The Dustbinmen: There's a Hole in Your Dustbin, Delilah |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/the-dustbinmen/theres-a-hole-in-your-dustbin-delilah-318268/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=TV.com}} and The Lovers.{{Cite web |last=Duguid |first=Mark |title=Lovers, The (1970–71) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1289920/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=BFI Screenonline}} They worked together again in 1982 for the TV movie P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang,{{Cite web |title=P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang. (1982) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6999e9e7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701223908/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6999e9e7 |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 July 2019 |access-date=9 January 2021 |publisher=British Film Institute |language=en}} the first film commissioned by Britain's Channel 4. In 1976 Apted directed a play in the Granada TV series Laurence Olivier Presents. The episode was The Collection by Harold Pinter. The play starred Laurence Olivier, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates and Helen Mirren.{{cite web |title=Michael Apted, Director of 'Coal Miner's Daughter' and 'Up' Series of Documentaries, Dies at 79 |date=8 January 2021 |url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/michael-apted-dead-up-docs-1234881490/ |work=Variety |access-date=9 January 2021}}

Apted used his idea from the Up series a second time in Married in America and Married in America 2. The idea was to interview nine married couples every two years over a ten-year period to tell a more complete story of their marriages.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/16/PK175924.DTL&type=printable |title=Keeping a watchful eye on love, commitment / Michael Apted's 'Married in America' to trace nine couples over 10 years |date=16 June 2002 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=9 January 2021}} In 2005, he directed the first three episodes of the TV series Rome.The three first episodes were:

• {{Cite web |title=Rome: The Stolen Eagle |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/rome/the-stolen-eagle-291012/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=TV.com}}
• {{Cite web |title=Rome: How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/rome/how-titus-pullo-brought-down-the-republic-291013/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=TV.com}}
• {{Cite web |title=Rome: An Owl in a Thornbush |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/rome/an-owl-in-a-thornbush-291014/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=TV.com}}

For his work in television, Apted won several British Academy Awards, including two Flaherty Documentary Awards for his work on 28 Up and 35 Up and a BAFTA for Best Dramatic Director for the single play Kisses at Fifty in 1974.{{cite web |url=http://awards.bafta.org/keyword-search?keywords=Michael%20Apted |title=BAFTA Awards |publisher=BAFTA |access-date=8 January 2021}}

Image:Michael Apted by David Shankbone.jpg

Apted made his first feature film in 1972, The Triple Echo, starring Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, and he directed two films for David Puttnam.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-nat-cohen-part-five-1971-1988/|access-date=5 February 2025|date=5 February 2025|title=Forgotten British film moguls – Nat Cohen: Part Five (1971-1988)}} The Triple Echo was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1973 |title=8th Moscow International Film Festival (1973) |access-date=3 January 2013 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194922/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1973 |archive-date=16 January 2013}} He alternated this work with working on the TV series Play for Today. He directed six plays including Stronger than the Sun, written by Stephen Poliakoff and starring Francesca Annis as a young woman who places her life in danger to expose a crime, a theme Apted returned to several times.{{Cite web |title=Stronger than the Sun (1977) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b773da300 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103092322/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b773da300 |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 January 2018 |access-date=9 January 2021 |publisher=British Film Institute |language=en}}

In 1979 he directed the Hollywood-financed Agatha, featuring Vanessa Redgrave.{{Citation |title=Agatha (1979) – Michael Apted {{!}} Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v1214 |language=en |access-date=9 January 2021}} He went to the United States in 1980, where he directed Coal Miner's Daughter, which received seven Academy Award nominations, winning best actress for Sissy Spacek.{{Cite web |title=The 53rd Academy Awards {{!}} 1981 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1981/A--E |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |language=en}} Both Spacek and Loretta Lynn, the subject of the film, have said that they believe Apted's outsider point of view was crucial to the movie's success in securing the participation of Appalachian residents and to the avoidance of stereotypes that previously had marred portrayals of mountain culture.Sissy Spacek and Michael Apted. Feature commentary track, Coal Miner's Daughter 25th Anniversary/Collector's Edition, 2005.Interview with Loretta Lynn and Michael Apted. Featurette on Coal Miner's Daughter 25th Anniversary/Collector's Edition DVD, 2005. In 2019, Coal Miner's Daughter was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".{{cite magazine |last=Chow |first=Andrew R. |date=11 December 2019 |title=See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks |url=https://time.com/5747503/national-film-registry-2019-additions/|magazine=Time |location=New York, NY |access-date=11 December 2019}}

Apted also made several films with a strong social message or that deal with an ethical dilemma. In 1983 he directed Gorky Park, a political thriller based on the novel by Martin Cruz Smith, that deals with police corruption in the former Soviet Union.{{Citation |title=Gorky Park (1983) – Michael Apted {{!}} Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v20395 |language=en |access-date=9 January 2021}} Class Action deals with a corporate whistleblower,{{Citation |title=Class Action (1991) – Michael Apted {{!}} Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v9818 |language=en |access-date=9 January 2021}} and Extreme Measures is about medical ethics.{{cite web |title=Extreme Measures |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/film/cc8d4/extreme-measures/ |work=Radio Times |access-date=9 January 2021}} Class Action was entered into the 17th Moscow International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1991 |title=17th Moscow International Film Festival (1991) |access-date=2 March 2013 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403102003/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1991 |archive-date=3 April 2014}}

In 1994, he directed Nell, which received three Golden Globe Award nominations{{Cite web |title=Nell |url=https://gg-proto.ps-pantheon.com/film/nell |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Golden Globes Awards}} and one Academy Award nomination.{{Cite web |title=The 67th Academy Awards {{!}} 1995 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995 |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |date=5 October 2014 |language=en}}

In 1999, Apted directed the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.{{cite web |title=James Bond and 7-Up director Michael Apted dies age 79 |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2021-01-09/james-bond-director-michael-apted-dies/ |work=Radio Times |access-date=9 January 2021}}

In addition to the Up series, Apted made other documentaries, including Bring On the Night, a feature-length concert film about the making of Sting's first solo album.{{cite news |title=Screen: Sting in 'Bring on the Night' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/08/movies/screen-sting-in-bring-on-the-night.html |first=Janet |last=Maslin |page=C12 |date=8 November 1985 |access-date=9 January 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times}} He directed the documentary The Long Way Home, which was released in 1989. It chronicled the UK, US and USSR adventures of Boris Grebenshchikov, the first Soviet underground musician allowed to record in the West.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzwKfkQS1QwC&pg=PT348 |title=Annie Lennox: The Biography |publisher=Omnibus Press |date=16 December 2009 |last=Ellis |first=Lucy |isbn=9780857121141}}

Before the making of Thunderheart, Apted made the documentary Incident at Oglala about Leonard Peltier. Incident at Oglala then informed Thunderheart in the casting of actors for the fiction film..{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/incident-at-oglala-the-leonard-peltier-story-98420/ |title=Incident at Ogala: The Leonard Peltier Story |date=26 June 1992 |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=9 January 2021}}

In 1997, he explored the creative process in Inspirations through candid discussion with seven artists from diverse media, including David Bowie, Louise Lecavalier and Roy Lichtenstein among others.{{cite web |url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/4008/inspirations/ |title=Inspirations |publisher=DVDTalk.com |access-date=9 January 2021}}

In a departure from his earlier work, from 1992 to 1994, Apted ventured into China's rapidly changing popular culture. In a project backed by Trudie Styler, Apted directed Moving the Mountain, a feature documentary which probed the origins of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and the consequences of the movement in the lives of several of the movement's student leaders.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/26/movies/film-review-moving-mountain-upheaval-china-real-recollections-false-flashbacks.html |title=Film Review:Moving the Mountain: Upheaval in China |work=The New York Times |date=26 April 1995 |access-date=9 January 2021 |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet}}

In 2006, Apted co-directed The Official Film of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, narrated by Pierce Brosnan.{{cite news |title=Film producer lists at Byron |url=https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-sunday-telegraph-sydney/20180428/283300343163128 |date=29 April 2018 |access-date=9 January 2020 |newspaper=The Sunday Telegraph |location=Sydney}}

Apted was the collaborator and subject of the documentary: Michael Apted – Visions on Film, by artist and filmmaker Melinda Camber Porter.{{cite web |url=https://melindacamberporter.com/gallery/series/journalism/1055/ |title=Michael Apted, English director |publisher=MelindaCamberPorter.com |access-date=9 January 2021}}

In 1977, Apted directed the premiere of Strawberry Fields at the National Theatre in London.

Apted's first marriage was to Jo Proctor in 1966, with whom he had two sons, Paul and Jim. Paul Apted was a sound editor who worked on movies such as The Wolverine; he died from colon cancer in 2014.{{cite web |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paul-apted-dead-sound-editor-716812 |title=Paul Apted, Sound Editor and Son of Director Michael Apted, Dies at 47 |last1=Hayden |first1=Erik |last2=Barnes |first2=Mike |date=5 July 2014 |work=The Hollywood Reporter}} After that marriage ended in divorce, he married Dana Stevens in 1998, before they divorced in 2009. They had a son, John.{{Cite web |date=23 June 2014 |title=Filmmaker Dana Stevens Balances Motherhood, Movie-Making & Her New CBS Show Reckless |url=https://tinseltownmom.com/filmmaker-dana-stevens-balances-motherhood-movie-making-and-her-new-cbs-show-reckless/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Tinseltown Mom |language=en}} In 2007 Apted became a father for the fourth time, to a girl, who lives with her mother Tania Mellis. Apted married Paige Simpson, his third wife, in January 2014.{{Cite web |last1=Dagan |first1=Carmel |date=8 January 2021 |title=Michael Apted, Director of 'Coal Miner's Daughter' and 'Up' Series of Documentaries, Dies at 79 |url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/michael-apted-dead-up-docs-1234881490/ |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}

Apted's health started to decline shortly after the completion of 63 Up, and he died at his home in Los Angeles on 7 January 2021, at the age of 79.{{cite web |last1=Welk |first1=Brian |title=Michael Apted, Director of 'Up' Documentaries and 'Coal Miner's Daughter,' Dies at 79 |url=https://www.thewrap.com/michael-apted-director-of-up-documentaries-and-coal-miners-daughter-dies-at-79/ |website=The Wrap |date=8 January 2021 |access-date=8 January 2021}}{{cite web |last1=D'Zurilla |first1=Christie |title=Michael Apted, '7 Up' director and three-time DGA president, dies at 79 |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-01-08/michael-apted-dead |website=Los Angeles Times |date=8 January 2021 |access-date=8 January 2021}}

{{div col}}

• The Triple Echo (1972)
• Stardust (1974)
• Trick or Treat (1975) (unfinished)
• The Squeeze (1977)
• Agatha (1979)
• Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
• Continental Divide (1981)
• Gorky Park (1983)
• Firstborn (1984)
• Critical Condition (1987)
• Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
• Class Action (1991)
• Thunderheart (1992)
• Blink (1993)
• Nell (1994)
• Extreme Measures (1996)
• The World Is Not Enough (1999)
• Enigma (2001)
• Enough (2002)
• Amazing Grace{{Citation |title=Amazing Grace (2007). Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10007415-amazing_grace |language=en |access-date=9 January 2021}} (2006)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
• Chasing Mavericks (2012)
• Unlocked (2017)

{{div col end}}

Documentary film

TV movies

• Joy (1972)
• Haunted: Poor Girl (1974)
• P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang{{cite web |title=Michael Apted |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9efa1400 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618211727/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9efa1400 |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 June 2016 |access-date=8 January 2021 |publisher=British Film Institute}} (1982)
• Always Outnumbered{{Citation |title=Always Outnumbered (1998). Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/always-outnumbered |language=en |access-date=9 January 2021}} (1998)
• Nathan Dixon (1999)
• Hallelujah{{cite web |url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/reviews/2011/06/01/the-futons-first-look-hallelujah-abc-505323/20110601_hallelujah/ |title=The Futon's First Look: "Hallelujah" (ABC) |publisher=The Futon Critic |access-date=9 January 2021}} (2011)

Documentary film

• The Long Way Home (1989)
• Married in America{{Cite web |last=Hart |first=Hugh |date=16 June 2002 |title=Keeping a watchful eye on love, commitment / Michael Apted's 'Married in America' to trace nine couples over 10 years |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Keeping-a-watchful-eye-on-love-commitment-2828223.php |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en-US}} (2003)
• Married in America 2 (2006)

He served as president of the Directors Guild of America from 2003 to 2009 and served as the secretary-treasurer from 2011 to his death.{{Cite web |title=Michael Apted (1941-2021) - Visual History Interview |url=https://www.dga.org/Craft/VisualHistory/Interviews/Michael-Apted.aspx |access-date=9 January 2021 |website=Directors Guild of America |language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

{{wikiquote}}

{{commons category}}

• {{IMDb name|776}}
• [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/506999/index.html Michael Apted biography] at BFI Screenonline
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071101084535/http://www.pfd.co.uk/clients/aptedm/f-ftd.html Resumé] at Peters, Fraser & Dunlop
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090608061619/http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/2007/11/040-whats-amazi.html Interview with Michael Apted on "Amazing Grace"] by ReadTheSpirit.com
• {{NPG name|165539}}

{{Michael Apted}}

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