Ismail Merchant - Biography

				Ismail Merchant Biography   Name : Ismail Merchant Birth Name : Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Rehman Date of Birth : 25 December 1936 Place of Birth : Bombay, Maharashtra, India Date of Death : 25 May 2005 Place of Death : London, England, UK Nationality : Indian Profession : Film producer, director, actor

Ismail Merchant Detailed Biography

Educated in Bombay and the U.S., Indian-born Ismail Merchant was destined for a business administration career. Rather than waste away in banking or speculating, lifelong movie buff Merchant put his skills to work in the creative arts. Ismail Merchant found the perfect collaborators in the form of German/Indian novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and California-born director James Ivory. The Merchant/Ivory productions written by Jhabvala, among them Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Bombay Talkie (1969), Roseland (1977), The Europeans (1979), A Room with a View (1984), and Howard's End (1992), have set an international standard for superior production values at the least possible cost. These accomplishments are all the more remarkable when one realizes that Ismail Merchant and Ivory were almost constantly at each other's throats over artistic and financial matters -- and make no effort to hide their squabbles from the public. In addition to his administrative duties, Ismail Merchant occasionally turned director as well; among his efforts was The Courtesans of Bombay (1980). Ismail Merchant also carved a niche in the culinary world with his best-selling cookbook, Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine. In 2005, while working on The White Countess, Ismail Merchant was stricken with an illness and died unexpectedly a short time later. He was 68.