{"id":48436,"date":"2021-01-08T21:45:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T02:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=48436"},"modified":"2021-01-08T21:45:51","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T02:45:51","slug":"michael-apted-obituary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2021\/01\/08\/michael-apted-obituary\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Apted, Director And SEVEN UP Documentarian Has Died At 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Apted, who directed Sissy Spacek to an Oscar win in 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter<\/strong> and who oversaw the 7 Up<\/strong> documentary series, has died at the age of 79. Although his agent confirmed his passing to news outlets, no further information was made available.<\/p>\n

Although never nominated for an Academy Award, Apted has directed a number of films that received various nominations at the Oscars. in addition to Spacek’s win for playing country singing legend Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter<\/strong>, he also oversaw Jodie Foster and Sigourney Weaver to their best actress Oscar nominations in Gorillas in the Mist<\/strong> (1988) and Nell<\/strong> (1994).<\/p>\n

Graduating Cambridge College in England in 1964, Apted found himself working for Grenada Television where he was tasked with finding the fourteen seven-year-old children who would be part of a documentary special entitled Seven Up!<\/strong> to be directed Paul Almond. initially conceived a s one-off project, it proved popular enough that Grenada comissioned a follow up on the children in 1970, 7 Plus Seven<\/strong>, promoting Apted to producer and director of the project. Although not every child would participate with every new installment, further films every seven years – 21 Up<\/strong> (1977), 28 Up<\/strong> (1984), 35 Up<\/strong> (1991), 42 Up<\/strong> (1998), 49 Up<\/strong> (2005), 56 Up<\/strong> (2012) and 63 Up<\/strong> (2019) – with Apted directing each one.<\/p>\n

Apted’s feature film debut was the war saga The Triple Echo<\/strong> (1972), starring Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed. As a feature director, Apted tended to gravitate to character dramas such as Continental Divide<\/strong> (1981) featuring John Belushi in one of his last roles, and thrillers such as Class Action<\/strong> (1991) starring Gene Hackman, Gorky Park <\/strong>(1983)with William Hurt and Extreme Measures<\/strong> (1996) starring Hugh Grant. Although often a very singular filmmaker, he also wasn’t adverse to taking work on a franchise film, helming the third Chronicles of Narnia<\/strong> installment The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader<\/strong> (2010) and the 1999 James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A lifelong fan of rock music, Apted also used his camera lens to examine several rock icons. Stardust (1974) starred British singer-songwriter David Essex in the fictional story of the rise and fall of an international rock star during the 1960s and early 1970s. His 1995 doc Bring On The Night<\/strong> (1985), followed the making of Sting’s first solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles<\/em> album the musician’s subsequent tour. A documentary following the Rolling Stones on their 2002 Forty Licks tour remains unreleased following a disagreement between Apted and Stones frontman Mick Jagger.<\/p>\n

Apted also directed numerous hours of television including episodes of such series as the longrunning British soap Coronation Street<\/em>. ITV Playhouse<\/em>, Rome<\/em>, Ray Donovan<\/em> and Masters Of Sex<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The director of the groundbreaking SEVEN-UP documentary series has died.<\/div>\n

[click for more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[10981,10983,10985,8544,10984,10982],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-obituary-news","8":"tag-7-up-series","9":"tag-coal-miners-daughter","10":"tag-gorillas-in-the-mist","11":"tag-michael-apted","12":"tag-nell","13":"tag-the-world-is-not-enough"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t