Paul Almond

Paul Almond OC RCA April 26 1931 April 9 2015 was a Canadian television and motion picture screenwriter director producer and novelist He is most known for being the director of the first film in the Up series Paul Almond was born to Rene Almond and Eric Almond He attended Bishops College School McGill University and Balliol College Oxford University where he read Philosophy Politics Economics edited the University magazine Isis played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club and served as president of the university Poetry Society At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation he worked primarily as a director and producer and also wrote several scripts He did similar work in England for the BBC ABC Weekend TV and Granada TV where he created the groundbreaking documentary Seven Up before embarking on a career as a featurelength filmmaker In the late 1960s he attempted to establish a high quality Canadian art cinema with his understated and highly interiorized films Isabel 1968 The Act of the Heart 1970 and Journey 1972 featuring his wife at the time actress Geneviève Bujold These films met some critical resistance in Canada but the trilogy was Almonds most ambitious work and a distinctive contribution to Canadian film After an absence from filmmaking of almost a decade Almond directed three more films Ups and Downs 1983 Captive Hearts 1987 and The Dance Goes On 1991 featuring Bujold and their son Matthew Almond In addition to his television and film work Almond also produced and directed several plays for television by such authors as Henrik Ibsen Tennessee Williams Harold Pinter William Shakespeare as well as creating his own adaptations of works by Jane Austen Emily Brontë Henry James Somerset Maugham among others In later years Almond authored eight novels in the Alford Saga The final novel is titled The Inheritor a standalone autobiographical roman à clef about the remarkable life loves agonies achievements and awards of a prestigious Canadian movie producer director and author It was published in April 2015 by Red Deer Press Almond was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001 and given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Canada in 2007 He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Almond was first married to National Ballet of Canada leading dancer Angela Leigh then to Geneviève Bujold from 1967 to 1974 Their son Matthew James Almond was born in 1968 In 1976 he married photographer Joan Harwood Elkins Almond maintained a home in Malibu California in addition to the Almond hereditary family farm in Shigawake Quebec Almond died on April 9 2015 in Beverly Hills California of cardiac problems from which he had suffered for several years