Roger Spottiswoode

Roger Spottiswoode
Born	John Roger Spottiswoode (1945-01-05) 5 January 1945 (age 80) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada[1]
Nationality	Canadian British
Occupation(s)	Film director Film editor Screenwriter
Years active	1966-present
Organization(s)	Directors Guild of America Directors Guild of Canada
Spouse	Holly Palance ​ ​ (m. 1983; div. 1997)​
Children	2
Awards	Gemini Award Festival du Film Policier de Cognac Special Jury Prize Cinéfest Sudbury Award for Best Canadian Film

John Roger Spottiswoode[2] (born 5 January 1945) is a Canadian-British director, editor and writer of film and television.

Early life

He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and was raised in Britain.[3] His father Raymond Spottiswoode was a British film theoretician[4] who worked at the National Film Board of Canada during the 1940s, directing short films such as Wings of a Continent.

Career

In the 1960s, Spottiswoode entered the British film industry as a trainee editor where he apprenticed under editor John Bloom. In the early 1970s Spottiswoode edited several films for Sam Peckinpah.[5]

He wanted to direct and Walter Hill advised him the best way in was to write a script. Hill and Spottiswoode collaborated on the scripts for 48 Hours and the never-made The Last Gun. [6]

Spottiswoode turned to directing in the early 1980s and has since directed a number of notable films and television productions, including Under Fire (1983)[7] and the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies starring Pierce Brosnan.[8] Spottiswoode was a member of the writing team responsible for 48 Hrs. starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte.[9] In 2000, he directed the science fiction action thriller The 6th Day starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.[10]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Notes	Refs
1980	Terror Train		[11]
1981	The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper	Replaced director Buzz Kulik[12]
1983	Under Fire
1986	The Best of Times		[13]
1988	Shoot to Kill		[14]
1989	Turner & Hooch
1990	Air America		[15]
1992	Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot		[16]
1994	Mesmer		[17]
1997	Tomorrow Never Dies
2000	The 6th Day
2003	Spinning Boris		[18]
2005	Ripley Under Ground
2007	Shake Hands with the Devil		[19]
2008	The Children of Huang Shi		[20]
2012	Beyond Right and Wrong	Documentary film Co-directed with Lekha Singh
2014	The Journey Home	Co-directed with Brando Quilici
2016	A Street Cat Named Bob
2021	Either Side of Midnight

As editor

• Straw Dogs (1971)
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
• The Gambler (1974)
• Hard Times (1975)

As writer

• 48 Hrs. (1982)

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1982	The Renegades	Episode "Pilot"

TV movies

• The Last Innocent Man (1987)
• Third Degree Burn (1989)
• And the Band Played On (1993)
• Hiroshima (1995)
• Murder Live! (1997)
• Noriega: God's Favorite (2000)
• The Matthew Shepard Story (2002)
• Ice Bound: A Woman's Survival at the South Pole (2003)
• The Beach House (2018)

Awards and nominations

Won

• 1982: Festival du Film Policier de Cognac Special Jury Prize: The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper
• 1993: Montreal World Film Festival Special Grand Jury Prize: And the Band Played On[21]
• 1995: Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series: Hiroshima
• 2003: Hamptons International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: Spinning Boris[22]
• 2007: Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival Audience Award: Shake Hands with the Devil
• 2007: Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film: Shake Hands with the Devil
• 2008: Beverly Hills Film Festival Jury Award: Shake Hands with the Devil

Nominated

• 1983: Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture: 48 Hrs. - with Walter Hill, Larry Gross, Steven E. de Souza
• 1988: CableACE Award for Directing a Movie or Miniseries: The Last Innocent Man
• 1988: NAACP Image Award for Best Motion Picture: Shoot to Kill
• 1994: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film: And the Band Played On
• 1994: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special: And the Band Played On
• 1995: CableACE Award for Directing a Movie or Miniseries: And the Band Played On
• 2008: Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction[23]

References

1. Roger Spottiswoode's bio at www.northernstars.ca
2. Spottiswoode, John Roger. "Directors Guild of Canada". dgc.ca.
3. "Making the movies Hollywood doesn't want" by Johanna Schneller at www.theglobeandmail.com
4. "Criticism: The 1930s: theory and debate" by Geoff Brown at screenonline.org
5. "All Aboard...If You Dare!: An Interview with Roger Spottiswoode".
6. Vagg, Stephen (14 July 2020). ""John Wick with spurs" – A look at Walter Hill's Unmade The Last Gun". Diabolique.
7. "Screen: 'Under Fire'" by Vincent Canby at www.nytimes.com
8. Tomorrow Never Dies Review by Todd McCarthy at variety.com
9. "Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in '48 HOURS'" by Janet Maslin at www.nytimes.com
10. The 6th Day Review by Todd McCarthy at variety.com
11. "Spottiswoode's 'Terror Train'" by John Corry (original context from October 3, 1980, Section C, Page 10) at www.nytimes.com
12. The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper Review - "Begun by director John Frankenheimer, continued by director Buzz Kulik and finally finished by Spottiswoode" at variety.com
13. "Film: 'Best of Times,' Football Story" by Walter Goodman (original context from January 31, 1986, Section C, Page 20) at www.nytimes.com
14. Shoot to Kill review at variety.com
15. Air America review at variety.com
16. Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot review at variety.com
17. Mesmer review by Leonard Klady at variety.com
18. Spinning Boris review by David Rooney at variety.com
19. Shake Hands With the Devil Review at www.hollywoodreporter.com
20. "Spottiswoode’s Nanjing drama surfaces" by Etan Vlessing at playbackonline.ca
21. "‘Trahir’ tops Montreal" by Brendan Kelly at variety.com
22. "Fest’s big ‘Screen’" by David Rooney at variety.com
23. 2008 Genie Nominees at www.thestar.com

External links

• Roger Spottiswoode at IMDb
• Roger Spottiswoode at the TCM Movie Database
• Roger Spottiswoode at Northernstars.ca