Ken Russell, Director of Tommy, The Boy Friend and Other Films, Dies at 84

Ken Russell, the Oscar-nominated British director who translated the Who’s concept album Tommy into a 1975 film, died in his sleep on November 27. According to his actress wife, Lisi Tribble, Russell had been developing a musical film version of Alice in Wonderland and preparing for the re-release of his controversial 1971 film The Devils at the time of his death.

Born in Southampton, England, on July 3, 1927, Russell served in the Royal Air Force and worked as a photographer and dancer before turning to film directing. His third film, Women in Love (1969), became an international sensation, earning a Best Actress Oscar for Glenda Jackson and a Best Director nomination for Russell.

In 1971, the same year the sexually explicit The Devils was released, Russell turned his attention to musicals, writing the screenplay and directing Twiggy in a film adaptation of Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend. In 1975, Russell directed a big-screen adaptation of the Who’s Tommy, starring composer Roger Daltrey in the title role, Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and Ann-Margret at Tommy’s mom, with appearances by Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jack Nicholson and Who band members Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

Over the years, Russell directed musical biographies of classical composers including Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Delius, Liszt and Mahler, as well as films such as Altered States (1980), which introduced William Hurt to movie audiences. In the early 1980s, he was in pre-production for Evita but bowed out when he insisted on casting Liza Minnelli over the producers’ desire to feature original London stage star Elaine Paige. In 2006, he directed a pair of videos featuring Sarah Brightman, including her performance of “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from The Phantom of the Opera.

In 2008, Russell made his off-Broadway debut as director of Anthony Horowitz’s Mindgame, starring Keith Carradine. The play opened at Soho Playhouse on November 9 and closed on January 4, 2009.

Russell, who was married four times, is survived by Tribble and five children from his first marriage.