Alan Parker
Sir Alan Parker Alan Parker at his Soho Offices, London, April 2008 Born Alan William Parker (1944-02-14) 14 February 1944 (age 71) Islington, London, England Education Dame Alice Owen's School Occupation Film director Film producer Screenwriter Television commercials Website alanparker.com Sir Alan William Parker, CBE (born 14 February 1944) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. The early part of his career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television commercials. After about 10 years doing commercials, many of which won awards for creativity, he began screenwriting and directing films. Among the different genres Parker has directed have been musicals, including Bugsy Malone (1976), Fame (1980), Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), The Commitments (1991), and Evita (1996); true-story dramas, including Midnight Express (1978), Mississippi Burning (1988), Come See the Paradise (1990), and Angela's Ashes (1999); dramas, including Shoot the Moon (1982), and horrors and thrillers including Angel Heart (1987), and The Life of David Gale (2003). His films have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden Globes and ten Academy Awards. Parker was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the British film industry and knighted as a Knight Bachelor in 2002. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema, along with being a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain and lecturing at various film schools. In 2013 he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the highest honour the British Film Academy can give a filmmaker.[citation needed]