American director and screenwriter James Ivory was BOTD in 1928. Born in Berkeley, California, he was adopted as a baby and raised in Oregon. He studied painting at the University of Oregon, and moved to New York City in the 1950s, where he made the documentary The Sword and the Flute. In 1959, he met Ismail Merchant at a screening of his film, forming a life-long personal and professional partnership. In 1961, they established Merchant Ivory Productions, becoming one of the most successful filmmaking teams of the 20th century. Their breakthrough came in 1979 with The Europeans, a witty adaptation of Henry James‘ novel, adapted by novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who became their regular screenwriter. They achieved global success with their adaptation of E. M. Forster‘s novel A Room With a View, nominated for eight Oscars including best picture and best director and winning three. Their 1987 film Maurice, an adaptation of Forster’s posthumously-published gay romance, was highly praised for its sympathetic depiction of gay desire and generous full-frontal nudity. They scored back-to-back successes with 1992’s Howard’s End, their third Forster film, and The Remains of the Day, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel about a self-sacrificial butler in service to a Nazi sympathising aristocrat. Softly spoken and scrupulously polite, Ivory was an odd match with the extroverted Merchant, a disparity that both acknowledged as a key ingredient of their professional success. After Merchant’s death in 2005, Ivory made only one film, a little-seen adaptation of Peter Cameron‘s novel The City of Your Final Destination, before retiring from directing. In 2017, he became the oldest-ever Oscar-winner (at 89) for his screenplay of André Aciman‘s queer romance Call Me By Your Name, despite his annoyance at director Luca Guadagnino excising his scripted sex scenes. His 2021 memoir Solid Ivory detailed his open relationship with Merchant, his affair with travel writer Bruce Chatwin and his unease over Merchant’s long-term relationship with composer Richard Robbins. Ivory lives in upstate New York in a restored 18th-century mansion. His relationship status is unknown.