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Mike Newell
Mike Newell
	Newell at WonderCon 2010
Born	Michael Cormac Newell; 28 March 1942 (age 82); St Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Alma mater	Magdalene College, Cambridge
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	1963–present
Notable work	Four Weddings and a Funeral; Donnie Brasco; Pushing Tin; Mona Lisa Smile; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; Great Expectations
Spouse	Bernice Stegers (m. 1980)
Children	2
Awards	BAFTA Award for Best Direction; Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Michael Cormac Newell (born 28 March 1942) is an English film and television director and producer. He won the BAFTA for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and directed the films Donnie Brasco (1997) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).^[1]

Early life

Newell was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, as the son of amateur actors,^[2] and was educated at St Albans School. He read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[3]^[4] He then attended a three-year training course at Granada Television with the intention of entering the theatre.

Career

Newell directed various British TV shows from the 1960s onwards (such as Spindoe, credited as Cormac Newell, and Big Breadwinner Hog), but eventually shifted his focus to film direction.

His first feature-length project was The Man in the Iron Mask (1977), a made-for-television film. His first critically acclaimed movie was Bad Blood (1981), concerning the 1941 manhunt for the New Zealand mass-killer Stan Graham played by Jack Thompson. This was followed by Dance with a Stranger (1985), a biographical drama starring Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK. For his directorial efforts, Newell won the Award of the Youth at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.

Newell continued his successes in the film industry with Enchanted April (1991), an adaptation of the 1922 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim. Miranda Richardson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and Joan Plowright won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

During this period, George Lucas recruited Newell as one of the numerous feature film directors to direct episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

The comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) was also critically acclaimed, winning numerous awards, including a César Award (Best Foreign Film), a Golden Globe (Best Actor – Hugh Grant), and a number of London Critics Circle Film Awards (Best Director, Film, Producer, and Screenwriter).

Since these award-winning productions, Newell has directed a number of films in Hollywood, such as Donnie Brasco (1997) (starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp), Pushing Tin (1999) (starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, and Angelina Jolie) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003) (starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles).

In 2005, Newell was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts by the University of Hertfordshire which has a campus in St Albans, his birthplace. He was also awarded the BAFTA Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in Directing for his career prior to 2005.^[5] Newell became the first British director of the Harry Potter film series with the production of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth adaptation in the series, which became a major critical and financial success worldwide. Newell is heard briefly as the radio announcer at the beginning of the film.

Newell directed Love in the Time of Cholera in 2007 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2010. In February 2011, Newell attended the British Academy Film Awards along with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, David Heyman, David Barron, David Yates, Alfonso Cuarón, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson to collect the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema on behalf of the Harry Potter film series.^[6]

Continuing to work on adaptations, Newell directed Great Expectations (2012) from the novel by Charles Dickens with Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, and Jeremy Irvine in starring roles.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11] The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.^[12]

On Christmas Day in 2016, Newell appeared as a contestant on a special episode of the BBC's University Challenge, representing his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[4]

Filmography

Film

Director

The Awakening (1980)
Bad Blood (1981)
Dance with a Stranger (1985)
The Good Father (1985)
Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987)
Soursweet (1988)
Enchanted April (1991)
Into the West (1992)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Pushing Tin (1999)
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Great Expectations (2012)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

Executive producer

Photographing Fairies (1997)
200 Cigarettes (1999)
Best Laid Plans (1999)
High Fidelity (2000)
Traffic (2000)
I Capture the Castle (2003)
Great Expectations (2012)
Enchanted Kingdom 3D (2014) (Documentary)

Television

TV series

Year(s)	Title	Notes
1966	Coronation Street	8 episodes
1967	The Fellows	5 episodes
1967	Escape	1 episode
1967–1981	ITV Playhouse	4 episodes
1968	Spindoe	4 episodes
	City '68	2 episodes
	Her Majesty's Pleasure	5 episodes
1969	Big Breadwinner Hog	6 episodes
1969	Parkin's Patch	2 episodes
1969–1970	ITV Saturday Night Theatre	2 episodes
1970	Confession	2 episodes
	Diamond Crack Diamond	1 episode
	The Adventures of Don Quick	1 episode
1971	The Guardians	2 episodes
1971–1972	Thirty-Minute Theatre	2 episodes
1971–1972	Budgie	6 episodes
1972	The Man from Haven
1972–1978	Play for Today	6 episodes
1973	Love Story	2 episodes
	Hadleigh	2 episodes
	Late Night Theatre	3 episodes
	Wessex Tales	1 episode
1974	Childhood	1 episode
1974	Late Night Drama	2 episodes
1975	BBC2 Playhouse	1 episode
1975	Comedy Premiere	1 episode
1976	Red Letter Day	1 episode
1976	Second City Firsts	1 episode
1977	The Sunday Drama	1 episode
1978	BBC2 Play of the Week	1 episode
1989	Smith and Jones in Small Doses	1 episode
1993	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	2 episodes
2019	One Red Nose Day and a Wedding	TV Short