- Born
- Height1.78 m
- Martin Campbell knows how to entertain an audience when he steps behind the camera. When he directed Le Masque de Zorro (1998), the movie earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and launched the international careers of Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Next, when he helmed Vertical Limit (2000), the film was well received by the critics and earned over $200 million in worldwide box-office sales. In addition, Campbell is credited with rejuvenating the James Bond franchise when he directed GoldenEye (1995), Pierce Brosnan's first outing as the famed British spy, which went on to gross more than $350 million. He also directed Daniel Craig's debut Bond feature as well, Casino Royale (2006).
Born in New Zealand, Campbell moved to London where he began his career as a cameraman. He went on to produce the controversial British feature Scum (1979), as well as Black Joy (1977), which was selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Campbell made his directorial debut on the British police action series Les professionnels (1977) and continued with the popular BBC series Shoestring (1979) and Thames TV's Minder (1979)
Considered one of the U.K.'s top directors by the mid-'80s, he directed the highly praised British telefilm, Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983). For his work on Edge of Darkness (1985), a five-hour BBC miniseries about nuclear contamination in England that depicted murder and high-ranking corruption, he won six BAFTA awards.
Campbell's first Hollywood movie was Criminal Law (1998) and he went on to direct Sans aucune défense (1991) and Absolom 2022 (1994). Some of his American credits include directing HBO's Détective Philippe Lovecraft (1991) and two episodes of NBC's Homicide (1993), among others. He also directed the epic romance Sans frontière (2003) starring Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen.- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous
- SpousesSol E. Romero(October 6, 2006 - present) (3 children)Valarie Trapp(2002 - 2006)Diana Hardcastle (divorced)
- ChildrenTomas CampbellElina Campbell
- Frequently sets important portions of the film or has characters fighting one another atop very high places.
- Often has angry, but humorous dialogue between heroes in his films.
- Directed two James Bond actors in their respective debuts: Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye (1995) and Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006). Campbell had cameo appearances in both films.
- Was approached by Tom Cruise to direct Top Gun: Maverick (2022), but turned it down as at 75 he thought he was too old to direct an action thriller of that scale and that it should be directed by a much younger director.
- Has two sons, Fabrice Campbell and Tomas Campbell, and a daughter, Elina Campbell.
- Most of his movies are shot by cinematographer Phil Meheux.
- He was asked to direct Demain ne meurt jamais (1997), but he didn't want to direct two James Bond films in a row, so he made Le Masque de Zorro (1998) instead. He was also asked to direct Le monde ne suffit pas (1999), Meurs un autre jour (2002) and Quantum of Solace (2008), but turned them down.
- I like pre-production and post the best. I don't like shooting at all. I find it grueling and tough, but I love post and the whole process of seeing the film finally come together. You start ironing out all the rough spots, and the really bad bits you just throw away. So from day one of post to the last day, you see nothing but improvements.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content