Anthony Simmons

Biography

Anthony Simmons (16 December 1922 – 22 January 2016) was a British writer and film director. He was associated with, though separate from, the Free Cinema movement; he said he was greatly influenced by Humphrey Jennings and by Michelangelo Antonioni’s movie Il Grido (1957). Simmons was born in West Ham, then in Essex, now part of the London Borough of Newham, the fourth of five children – three boys and two girls – to parents of Polish-Jewish extraction, Miriam (née Corb) and Joseph Simmons (originally Anzulowsky), from a family of market traders. He was named Isidore but adopted the forename Anthony in his teens. After attending West Ham Grammar School, Simmons gained a law degree from the London School of Economics, where his course was interrupted by wartime service. Simmons asserted: "I wasn’t aiming to be a film director. I was a lawyer aiming to be a writer. But I felt that if I wrote films it was more immediate. It’s quicker. You haven’t got to spell out the words, you just make the image and tell the story." His documentary Sunday by the Sea (1951) won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival. Four in the Morning (1965), his second feature film as director, did not gai…

Directed

1. Inspector Morse (1987) — Director
2. A Touch of Frost (1992) — Director
3. The Professionals (1977) — Director
4. Super Gran (1985) — Director
5. The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973) — Director
6. Four in the Morning (1965) — Director
7. Van der Valk (1972) — Director
8. Play for Today (1970) — Director
9. Black Joy (1977) — Director
10. Poison Candy (1989) — Director
11. Your Money or Your Wife (1960) — Director
12. C.A.T.S. Eyes (1985) — Director
13. Sunday by the Sea (1953) — Director
14. The Day After the Fair (1986) — Director
15. On Giant's Shoulders (1979) — Director
16. Stainless Steel and the Star Spies (1981) — Director
17. Bow Bells (1954) — Director
18. BBC2 Play of the Week (1977) — Director
19. No Short Cut (1964) — Director
20. From First to Last (1962) — Director
21. Life After Death (1982) — Director
22. 99-1 (1994) — Director
23. The Good Guys (1992) — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Big Screen (1973) — Self