Sir Alan William Parker, CBE (born 14th February, 1944) is a British film director, producer, writer, and actor. He has been active in both the British film industry as well as in Hollywood. He is a founding member of the Director's Guild of Great Britain.
Parker was born into a working class family in Islington, North London, the son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter.. He attended Dame Alice Owens School. Parker started out as a copywriter for advertising agencies in the 1960s and 1970s and later began to write his own television commercial scripts. His most celebrated and enduring advertising work was when he worked for famed London agency Collett Dickenson Pearce where he directed many award winning commercials, including the famous Cinzano vermouth advertisement, starring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, shown in the UK.
His start in film came through his association with producer David Puttnam, now Lord Puttnam, when he wrote the screenplay for the 1971 feature Melody. Puttnam would later produce a number of Parker's films including Midnight Express (1978). This, his breakthrough, was a gritty film set in a Turkish prison that was lauded by critics and ended up earning Parker a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. He was later nominated for Best Director with Mississippi Burning (1988).
Parker has directed a number of off-beat musicals including Bugsy Malone (1976), Fame (1980), Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), The Commitments (1991) and the 1996 film Evita.
He was knighted in the New Year's Honours for 2002. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Sunderland in 2005 of which his long time associate Lord Puttnam is chancellor.
He has also directed several commercials as well as the Madonna videos "You Must Love Me", "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" for Evita.
The Sucker's Kiss (2003). A historical fiction novel about a pickpocket in 1900s San Francisco.
'NO HARD FEELINGS' (1973) shown on BBC TV. First in a series ('Stories of the Blitz') about the second world war 'blitz' of London. The series was never made but the 1975 film 'The Evacuees' came out of this idea.
