Ken Russell

Did you know?!

1. A first

   Russell's 1962 television film Elgar was the first time a television arts program was devoted to a single artistic figure instead of using a magazine format, and the first to use re-enactments.

2. A role that slipped away

   Ken Russell's 1964 plan to adapt Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange with the Rolling Stones in the cast fell apart once the British Board of Censors told him it would not approve the film.

3. A role that slipped away

   Russell spent more than a year attached to the Evita film, but he ultimately quit the project because he would not cast Elaine Paige as the lead.

4. Big break

   Russell's short Amelia and the Angel (1959) earned him much acclaim, and that acclaim helped him land a job at the BBC.

5. Behind the camera

   Russell set up a company called Sitting Duck to make music videos, including Elton John's "Nikita" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera".

6. A first

   In 2008, Russell directed Mindgame for the first time in New York. The Off-Broadway thriller by Anthony Horowitz was staged at the SoHo Playhouse.