Alexander Mackendrick

Alexander Mackendrick September 8 1912 December 22 1993 was an Americanborn Scottish film director and screenwriter He directed nine feature films between 1949 and 1967 before retiring from filmmaking to become an influential professor at the California Institute of the Arts Born to Scottish immigrant parents in Boston he was raised in Glasgow from the age of 6 He began making television commercials before moving into postproduction editing and directing films most notably for Ealing Studios where his films include Whisky Galore 1949 The Man in the White Suit 1951 which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay The Maggie 1954 and The Ladykillers 1955 In 1957 Mackendrick directed his first American film Sweet Smell of Success which was a critical and commercial success However his directing career declined throughout the following decade and he was fired or replaced from several projects owing in part to his perfectionist approach to filmmaking Mackendrick retired from directing in the late 1960s after completing A High Wind in Jamaica 1965 and Dont Make Waves 1967 becoming the founding Dean and later a Professor of the CalArts School of FilmVideo