Paul Almond

Film-maker Born: April 26, 1931 Died: April 9, 2015

PAUL ALMOND, who has died of heart disease aged 83, was a filmmaker whose landmark 1964 documentary Seven Up! inspired an extended look at British children’s unfolding lives.

Born in Montreal, he started his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and went on to produce and direct more than 100 dramas for the Canadian network, as well as for US and UK broadcasters. He also wrote and adapted plays for TV.

He brought the works of Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams and other famed writers to TV, and his projects featured future stars including Sean Connery, Maggie Smith and William Shatner. Connery, preJames Bond, starred in Almond’s Canadian Broadcast Corporation production of Macbeth in 1961.

Almond, also a bigscreen filmmaker, took great pride in the movies Isabel (1968), Act of the Heart (1970) and Journey (1972), which he wrote and directed. The movies starred Almond’s then wife, the actress Genevieve Bujold.

It was in England that Seven Up! emerged from a pub discussion in which Almond observed that Britain’s social class system was fir mly entrenched.

His companion cited the maxim, “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man,” and the idea for the project was born. “

Over a couple of pints in a pub,” said Almond, “we decided to choose a group of sevenyearolds from both sides of the class divide and explore what their attitudes were.”

The critically praised Seven Up! in which 14 children from different social and economic backgrounds talk about their lives and futures, ended up being the foundation for a continuing look at them by filmmaker Michael Apted. Almond directed the original film.

Apted, a researcher on the original film, revisited its subjects every seven years for the documentaries including 7 Plus Seven in 1970, 21 Up in 1977 to the latest, 56 Up, released in 2012. The programmes were produced by Granada.

Almond, who received a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of Canada and was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada, turned to writing fulltime in 1990. His published works included the Alford Saga, eight adventure novels based on family history.

He died of complications from heart disease at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his longtime friend David Stansfield said: “He wanted all his life to be a poet, but he had to earn a living and ended up being a producer and director.”.

His survivors include his wife, Joan, Matthew Almond, his son with Ms Bujold, as well as stepchildren and grandchildren.