Alan Parker

Overview

The son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter, Alan Parker was a London advertising copywriter in the 1960s and early 1970s with Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP), an ad agency. He formed a partnership with David Puttnam as his producer (Puttnam had been a photographers' agent), and left CDP to become a full-time director of television commercials before moving onto feature films.
- IMDb mini biography by: Otter17/RMS125

Musical
Graphic and brutal depiction of violence
Films based on true stories
His films often have a dark, noirish look to them. They are often lit in very dark colors.

In order to join the Directors Guild Of America (DGA) a candidate must be nominated by three established members. When Parker applied for membership his nominators were: Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola and John Schlesinger.
Considered Oliver Stone as his strong antagonist since their collaboration on Midnight Express (1978). Parker even declined several times to give him WGA credits for his previous work on Evita (1996), but finally agreed to do so after a long deliberation with WGA's law representatives.
Directed 3 actors to Oscar nominations: John Hurt (Best Supporting Actor, Midnight Express (1978)), Gene Hackman (Best Actor, Mississippi Burning (1988)), and Frances McDormand (Best Supporting Actress, Mississippi Burning (1988)).
He was a founding member of the Directors' Guild of Great Britain and has lectured at film schools around the world.
Appointed CBE in 1995 and knighted in the 2002 New Year's Honours List. Known as Sir Alan Parker.

I was once described by one of my critics as an aesthetic fascist.
I'm always afraid someone's going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, "Back to North London".
Making a film is so hard that if you don't have your main actors going along with the ride with the rest of the crew it can make your life very difficult. Particularly within the Hollywood machine. They've allowed more stars to take over and it can make everyone else's life a misery. But the truth is the actors are doing their job just the same as the camera assistant and the costume designer and everybody else.
Every time I've been to Cannes, I've made up my mind never to return. Every time my vanity wins over.
[meeting an unknown Paul Thomas Anderson at a parking lot after an event at the USC film school] As I pulled away I could see in my mirror a young man chasing after me, waving a videotape. He ran alongside, banging at the window. I stopped, wound down the window, and he thrust the videotape through the window saying he'd made a short film and really wanted me to look at it. The short was The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), which I looked at and thought was quite brilliant.