Philip Saville

Biography

Philip Saville (sometimes credited as Philip Savile, born 28 October 1930, London) is a British actor who turned to television direction and screenwriting in the late 1950s. During the 1960s he directed several important television plays, such as Harold Pinter's A Night Out (1960) for ABC's Armchair Theatre anthology series, and the lost Madhouse on Castle Street (1963) for the BBC. The later production became famous as the first acting appearance of the American folk singer Bob Dylan, whom Saville had flown over to the UK specifically to take part in the play. Other notable programmes on which Saville worked included Out of the Unknown (1965) and the Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) for which Saville received a BAFTA to add to his earlier BAFTA for Hamlet. In film Saville directed The Fruit Machine (1988, released as Wonderland in the USA), Metroland (1997) and The Gospel of John (2003). Saville has been called one of the UK's top 100 directors of all time. He is active in film and television as of 2006, and has a masterclass studio in London specializing in dramatic improvisation. Philip Saville has recently completed a special documentary on Harold Pinter Pinter's Progress f…

Directed

1. The Gospel of John (2003) — Director
2. Metroland (1997) — Director
3. Count Dracula (1977) — Director
4. The Buccaneers (1995) — Director
5. Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) — Director
6. The Fruit Machine (1988) — Director
7. Secrets (1971) — Director
8. Crash: The Mystery of Flight 1501 (1990) — Director
9. Play for Today (1970) — Director
10. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986) — Director
11. The Best House in London (1969) — Director
12. Those Glory Glory Days (1983) — Director
13. Out of the Unknown (1965) — Director
14. BBC Play of the Month (1965) — Director
15. Thirty-Minute Theatre (1965) — Director
16. Shadey (1985) — Director
17. Mandela (1987) — Director
18. Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale (2002) — Director
19. Screen Two (1985) — Director
20. Oedipus the King (1968) — Director
21. Armchair Theatre (1956) — Director
22. Stop the World: I Want to Get Off (1966) — Director
23. Fellow Traveller (1989) — Director
24. Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) — Director
25. In Camera (1964) — Director
26. Count Dracula (1977) — Director
27. Screen One (1989) — Director
28. The Wednesday Play (1964) — Director
29. Little White Lies (1998) — Director
30. First Born (1988) — Director
31. Orson Welles' Great Mysteries (1973) — Director
32. Design for Living (1979) — Director
33. Max and Helen (1990) — Director
34. ITV Playhouse (1967) — Director
35. ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969) — Director
36. Discovering Hamlet (2011) — Director
37. Gangsters (1975) — Director
38. The Cloning of Joanna May (1992) — Director
39. Deacon Brodie (1997) — Director
40. The Machine Stops (1966) — Director

Also appeared in

1. To the Public Danger (1948) — Man in pub watching billiards game (uncredited)
2. Contraband Spain (1955) — Martin Scott
3. The Blind Goddess (1948) — Mainwaring's Junior
4. Penny and the Pownall Case (1948) — Slim, Police Car Driver
5. Murder at 3am (1953) — Edward "Teddy" King / Jim King
6. The Great Van Robbery (1959) — Chase
7. A Piece of Cake (1948) — Dinner Guest
8. Bang! You're Dead (1954) — Ben Jones
9. The Betrayal (1957) — Bartel
10. The Straw Man (1953) — Link Hunter
11. An Honourable Murder (1960) — Mark Anthony
12. Three Crooked Men (1958) — Seppy
13. On the Run (1958) — Driscoll
14. The Night of the Full Moon (1954) — Dale Merritt
15. The Journal of Bridget Hitler (1981) — Self
16. The Mirror and Markheim (1954) — Markheim
17. Return of the Unknown (2014)