Michael Balcon(1896-1977)
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Michael Balcon started in films as a distributor, then a producer from
the early 1920s, helping to launch the career of
Alfred Hitchcock. In the 1930s,
Balcon was prominent in building up a huge annual production programme
of films for both Gainsborough and Gaumont-British. Head of
MGM-British, 1936-38, then in charge of production at Ealing. Knighted
in 1948. After Ealing, produced some films independently
(L'Odyssée du petit Sammy (1963)), and
helped form Bryanston Films, a group of independent film makers,
including several ex-Ealing colleagues such as
Basil Dearden and
Michael Relph. After a frustrating period
as Chairman of British Lion (1964-68), in which he found it impossible
to fulfill his commitment to support a continuity of indigenous
production, he became Chairman of the British Institute's Experimental
Film Fund before retiring in 1972.
