Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), his best known works include the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), historical drama and Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator (2000), and science fiction film The Martian (2015).
Background
Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, England, to Elizabeth and Col. Francis Percy Scott. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the UK and Europe before they eventually returned to Teesside. Scott wanted to join Army but his father encouraged him to develop his artistic talents instead. He had two brothers, one of whom was Tony Scott, who later also became a film director and committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in Los Angeles on August 19, 2012. Ridley loved watching films as a child, and by the time he reached college, he was actively pursuing a film career.
Education
During this time the family moved around, living in (among other areas) Cumberland in North West England, Wales and Germany. He had a younger brother, Tony, who also became a film director. After World War II, the Scott family moved back to their native North East, eventually settling on Greens Beck Road in Hartburn, County Durham, whose industrial landscape would later inspire similar scenes in Blade Runner.He studied at Grangefield Grammar School and West Hartlepool College of Art from 1954 to 1958, obtaining a diploma in design.
Career
After completing his education, Ridley became a set designer for the BBC in the early 1960s, and was eventually promoted to director of such popular BBC series as the police adventure, 'Z Cars'.
Scott left the BBC in 1967 and established a production company, Ridley Scott Associates, working with Sir Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, and Hugh Johnson and employing his younger brother, Tony and spent the next 10 years making some of the best known and best loved TV adverts ever shown on British television, including a series of ads for Hovis bread set to the music of Dvorak's New World Symphony which is still talked about today. He began working with producer David Puttnam in the 1970s developing ideas for feature films. Further success followed with 1979's Alien. In 1982, the director found himself at the center of a storm around his production of Blade Runner.
He followed it up with three complete flops: 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), White Squall (1996) and G.I.Jane (1997). The latter was also criticized by the military for using incorrect terminology and by American Arab leaders for a scene in which Arabs were killed.
In 2000, he directed the epic 'Gladiator', starring Russell Crowe. The film received 12 Oscar nominations, including one for Sir Ridley as Best Director. Towards the end of 2001, Sir Ridley and brother Tony Scott's production company, Scott Free Prods. signed a three-year production deal with Fox.
The same year also saw Sir Ridley's psychological thriller 'Hannibal', starring a frightening Antony Hopkins, and war movie 'Black Hawk Down', hit the big screen. The latter, which depicts the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, won two Oscars. He went on to direct hits including 'Matchstick Men', 'Kingdom of Heaven', crime film 'American Gangster' and spy movie 'Body of Lies'.
In 2010, Sir Ridley's movie 'Robin Hood', starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, was chosen to open the annual Cannes Film Festival. Sir Ridley is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
Achievements
The director's transition to the big screen came with his direction of 1977's The Duellists, a visually striking Napoleonic war film that won the Jury Prize for Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Views
Scott's work is identified for its striking visuals, with heroines also a common theme. His visual style, incorporating a detailed approach to production design and innovative, atmospheric lighting, has been influential on a subsequent generation of filmmakers. Scott commonly uses slow pacing until the action sequences. Examples include Alien and Blade Runner; the LA Times critic Sheila Benson, for example, would call the latter "Blade Crawler" "because it's so damn slow". Another technique he employs is use of sound or music to build tension, as heard in Alien, with hissing steam, beeping computers and the noise of the machinery in the space ship. Scott claims to have an eidetic memory, which he says aids him in visualising and storyboarding the scenes in his films.
Scott has developed a method for filming intricate shots as swiftly as possible: "I like working, always, with a minimum of three cameras. So those 50 set-ups a day might only be 25 set-ups except I'm covering in the set-up. So you're finished. I mean, if you take a little bit more time to prep on three cameras, or if it's a big stunt, eleven cameras, and – whilst it may take 45 minutes to set up – then when you're ready you say 'Action!', and you do three takes, two takes and is everybody happy? You say, 'Yeah, that's it.' So you move on."
Personality
Ridley Scott is a person who supports change, innovation, and human advancement, and he is often strongly committed to a humanitarian cause or social improvement. Scott sees the political or social ramifications of personal actions, and he wishes to contribute something of value to the world, or at least to his community or group. He is truly interested in the good of the whole and not only his own personal well-being. On a personal level, Ridley Scott is friendly and expresses a kind of impersonal good will towards others. Ridley Scott is also very independent and refuses to be possessed by any individual.
Connections
Ridley Scott was married to Felicity Heywood from 1964 to 1975. The couple had two sons, Jake and Luke, both of whom work as directors on Scott's production company, Ridley Scott Associates. Scott later married advertising executive Sandy Watson in 1979, with whom he had a daughter, Jordan Scott, and divorced in 1989. His current partner is the actress Giannina Facio, whom he has cast in all his films since White Squall except American Gangster and The Martian. He divides his time between homes in London, France, and Los Angeles.
His eldest brother Frank died, aged 45, of skin cancer in 1980. His younger brother Tony, who was also his business partner in their company Scott Free, died on 19 August 2012 at the age of 68 after jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge which spans Los Angeles Harbor, after an originally disputed long struggle with cancer[99]. Before Tony's death, he and Ridley collaborated on a miniseries based on Robin Cook's novel, Coma for A&E.
The two-part miniseries premiered on A&E on 3 September 2012, to mixed reviews. In 2013, Ridley stated that he is an atheist.
Ridley has dedicated several of his films in memory of his family: Blade Runner to his brother Frank, Black Hawk Down to his mother, and The Counselor and Exodus: Gods and Kings to his brother Tony. Ridley also paid tribute to his late brother Tony at the 2016 Golden Globes, after his film, The Martian, won Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
When asked by the BBC in a September 2014 interview if he believes in God, Scott replied:
I'm not sure. I think there are all kinds of questions raised... that's such an exotic question. If we looked at the whole thing practically speaking, the big bang occurred and then we go through this evolution of millions, billions of years where, by coincidence, all the right biological accidents came out the right way. To an extent, that doesn't make sense unless there was a controlling decider or mediator in all of that. So who was that? Or what was that? Are we one big grand experiment in the basic overall blink of the universe, or the galaxy? In which case, who is behind it? Maybe we're an experiment which can last a billion years, but which is a blink in their terms and they can then say: 'Right that didn't work, let's blow them up!'
Brother:
Tony Scott
English film director Tony Scott was best known for his first box-office success, Top Gun, as well as later films like True Romance and Enemy of the State. He was the brother of Ridley Scott, also a famed producer and director. Tony was married to Donna Scott and had twin sons, jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, California, around 12:35 p.m. on August 19, 2012. Los Angeles police pulled his body from the water several hours later. Investigators found a note containing contact information in Scott's car, which was parked on the bridge. They also found a suicide note at his office.
Scott received a knighthood in honor of his substantial contribution to the British film industry, from Queen Elizabeth The second at Buckingham Palace on 8 July 2003.
Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
In 2011 won Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special Gettysburg (2011).
In 2011 won Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special Gettysburg (2011).
Primetime Emmy Awards
In 2002 won Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television Movie The Gathering Storm (2002).
In 2002 won Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television Movie The Gathering Storm (2002).
Cannes Film Festival
In 1977 the film The Duellists (1977) won in nomination Best First Work.
In 1977 the film The Duellists (1977) won in nomination Best First Work.
