Director Ken Russell Dies at 84

Ken Russell Ken Russell, the avant-garde filmmaker behind Women for each other and also the Boy Friend, has died. He was 84. Russell died Sunday following multiple strokes, his boy Alex Verney-Elliott told The Connected Press. "My dad died quietly. He died having a smile on his face," he stated. Begin to see the stars we lost this season Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell was created in Southampton, England. He gone to live in London in the 20s, analyzed photography and grew to become a documentary filmmaker in the BBC. His first feature film was the 1964 romantic comedy French Dressing. In 1967, he directed the spy movie Big Brain with Michael Caine. Russell gained his first Academy Award nomination for his 1969 film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Women for each other. The film, that was censored for featuring full-frontal nudity from the two male leads, won star Glenda Jackson an Oscar for the best Actress. Music seemed to be a large affect on Russell's films. In 1971, he authored and directed The Boy Friend, an homage towards the musicals from the nineteen thirties. The film starred supermodel Twiggy, who won two Golden Globes on her performance. Russell also modified the rock opera Tommy, which took it's origin from music in the Who. In 1991, Russell directed his last questionable film entitled Whore, which received an NC-17 rating. Russell - whose films incorporated 1980's Changed States and 1987's Medieval - was honored in 1995 through the American Cinematheque having a retrospective of his work known as Shock Value. His sometimes over-the-top films might be polarizing, and triggered Pauline Kael to express they "cheapen everything they touch." More lately, Russell made an appearance around the British reality show Celebrity Your Government in 2007, but left inside the first week. Russell, who had been married four occasions, is made it by his wife Elise Tribble and the children.