English director Tony Richardson was BOTD in 1928. Born in Shipley, Yorkshire, he studied at Oxford University where he became an active member of the student dramatic society, befriending fellow thespians Kenneth Tynan, Lindsay Anderson and John Schlesinger. After graduating, he worked as a director for BBC television, and began directing theatre productions with the British Stage Company. He became artistic director of London’s Royal Court Theatre, scoring a major success with his 1956 production of John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger, a grim realist drama about Britain’s post-World War Two generation, introducing audiences to the “Angry Young Man”. Under his direction, the Royal Court became the centre of London’s theatrical world, presenting new interpretations of classical repertoire alongside experimental works by Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. His production of Osborne’s The Entertainer, a tragicomedy about a fading vaudeville star starring Laurence Olivier, transferred successfully to the West End and later to Broadway. He also directed premieres of kitchen-sink dramas A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. In the late 1950s, he shifted his focus to filmmaking, directing successful adaptations of Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, A Taste of Honey and Long Distance Runner, establishing him at the forefront of British New Wave cinema. His greatest success came with the bawdy 1963 costume drama Tom Jones, based on Henry Fielding’s novel, winning him Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. His subsequent film career was patchy, including historical war film The Charge of the Light Brigade, the Australian crime drama Ned Kelly starring Mick Jagger, and adaptations of Edward Albee‘s play A Delicate Balance and Fielding’s novel Joseph Andrews. A highly-respected director and collaborator, he also worked with actors Katharine Hepburn, Richard Burton, Orson Welles, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench and Jodie Foster, and screenwriters Jean Genet, Christopher Isherwood, Marguerite Duras and Edward Bond. Richardson married actress Vanessa Redgrave in 1962, with whom he had two daughters, the actresses Natasha and Joely Richardson. The marriage ended in 1966, following his affair with Jeanne Moreau, the star of his film Mademoiselle. He subsequently had a relationship with Grizelda Grimond, with whom he had a daughter. Discreetly bisexual, he had a number of affairs with men, finally acknowledging his sexuality in 1985 after being diagnosed HIV-positive. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1991, aged 63. His final film Blue Sky, a 1960s-set drama starring Jessica Lange as an emotionally unstable military wife, was released posthumously in 1993, winning Lange an Oscar.