Brian Gibson — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

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Brian Gibson (22 September 1944 — 4 January 2004) was an English film director.

Born in Reading, Berkshire, he studied Natural Sciences at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge graduating with an upper-second, and then History of Science at Darwin College, Cambridge. He intended to become a doctor, but became interested in journalism and edited Granta, the Cambridge University magazine.

After travelling in Turkey, Israel and Syria, Brian started at the BBC as a research assistant for Rene Cutforth's program, "Europa." He then produced several excellent editions of Horizon, a science TV magazine. Gibson received a BAFTA award and the 1975 Prix Italia for the "Horizon" episode Joey, based on "Tongue tied" the story of a brain-damaged child, by Joey Deacon who, in his adult life, found a handicapped friend to unlock his latent intellect.

After this he made The Billion Dollar Bubble, which introduced James Woods to British audiences, and Gossip from the Forest with John Shrapnel. He went on to direct Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills with, among others, Colin Welland, Helen Mirren and John Bird, as well as Breaking Glass with Hazel O'Connor, Phil Daniels and Jonathan Pryce.

In Hollywood, he directed Poltergeist II and HBO specials which included biographies of Simon Wiesenthal and Josephine Baker. He followed up with the Tina Turner biopic, What's Love Got to Do with It, and The Juror. In 1998 he directed his last film, Still Crazy.

Gibson married the leading lady of his TV film "The Josephine Baker Story" Lynn Whitfield. They had a daughter named Grace Gibson and divorced in 1992. He remarried Paula Rae Gibson and had another daughter before he died of Ewing's sarcoma, a form of cancer, at his London home in 2004. He was 59 years old.

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