Director of ‘Midnight Express,’ ‘Bugsy Malone,’ ‘Evita’

LONDON — Alan Parker, a successful and sometimes surprising filmmaker whose diverse output includes “Bugsy Malone,” “Midnight Express” and “Evita,” has died at 76, his family said.

A Briton who became a Hollywood heavyweight, Mr. Parker also directed “Fame,” “The Commitments” and “Mississippi Burning.” Together, his movies won 10 Academy Awards and 19 British Academy Film Awards.

The director’s family said he died Friday in London after a long illness.

Mr. Parker was born in London on Feb. 14, 1944, and began his career in advertising as a copywriter and director of commercials.

He moved into television with the critically acclaimed 1974 drama “The Evacuees,” which won an international Emmy Award.

The next year, he wrote and directed his first feature, “Bugsy Malone,” an unusual, exuberant musical pastiche of gangster films with a cast of children, including a young Jodie Foster.

He followed that with the 1978 feature “Midnight Express.” It won two Oscars and gained Mr. Parker the first of two best-director nominations.

Mr. Parker ranged widely across subjects and genres. While “Shoot the Moon” (1982) and “Angela’s Ashes” (1999) were family dramas, ”Birdy” (1984) was a tale of war and friendship, “Angel Heart” (1987) an occult thriller and “Mississippi Burning” (1988) a powerful civil rights drama.

Mr. Parker was also a notable director of musicals, like “Fame” (1980), “Pink Floyd — the Wall” (1982), “The Commitments” (1991) and “Evita” (1996). His final film was death-row drama “The Life of David Gale” in 2003.

Mr. Parker also championed Britain’s film industry, serving as chairman of the British Film Institute and the U.K. Film Council.

“Rocketman” director Dexter Fletcher said Mr. Parker “was one of the great, diverse, eclectic and original British filmmakers of his generation and my personal directing hero.”

Fellow British filmmaker David Puttnam said Mr. Parker “was my oldest and closest friend — I was always in awe of his talent. My life, and those of many others who loved and respected him, will never be the same again.”

Barbara Broccoli, producer of the James Bond films, said Mr. Parker’s films “exhibited the elements of his personality that we so cherished; integrity, humanity, humor and irreverence and rebellion, and most certainly entertainment.”