David Hemmings
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David Hemmings (18 November 1941 – 3 December 2003) was an English movie actor and director, whose most famous role was the photographer in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup in 1966 (opposite Vanessa Redgrave), one of the films that best represented the spirit of the 1960s. He also appeared in Barbarella.
Born in Guildford, Surrey, he started his career as a boy soprano, appearing in several works by Benjamin Britten, who formed a close friendship with him at this time. Most notably, he created the role of Miles in the opera Turn of the Screw. Hemmings' intimate, yet innocent, relationship with Britten is described in John Bridcut's Britten's Children.
Hemmings then moved on to an acting and directing career in the cinema. He made his first film appearance in 1954, but it was in the mid-sixties that he first became well known as a pin-up and film star. Following Blowup, he appeared in a string of major British films, including Camelot (1967), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Alfred the Great (1969) (in which he played the title role).
In 1967 he recorded a pop single ("Back Street Mirror", written by Gene Clark) and an album, David Hemmings Happens, in Los Angeles. The album featured instrumental backing by several members of the Byrds, and was produced by Byrds mentor Jim Dickinson. Hemmings also later provided the narration for Rick Wakeman's prog rock adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. In 1975 he starred as Bertie Wooster in the short-lived Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Jeeves.
He was mentioned twice in the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV show (series 1, episode 8 - "Full Frontal Nudity"). The first time was at the beginning of the episode with the line "The part of David Hemmings will be played by a piece of wood", the second time being at the end of the episode with "David Hemmings appeared courtesy of the National Forestry Society."
Living up to his glamorous image, Hemmings married four times, the most famous of his wives being the Fort Worth, Texas-born actress and long-term British resident, Gayle Hunnicutt, mother of his son, Nolan Hemmings. He continued to act, appearing in many TV dramas.
In 1981 he directed a film version of James Herbert's novel The Survivor, starring Robert Powell and Jenny Agutter. Throughout the 1980s Hemmings also worked extensively as a director on television programmes including The A-Team and Airwolf, in which he also played the role of Dr. Charles Henry Moffett. In 1984 he directed the puzzle contest video Money Hunt: The Mystery of the Missing Link.
In more recent years he had a role in the hit Russell Crowe film, Gladiator, in 2000. His last major role was in the movie Last Orders, the following year.
He died of a heart attack, aged 62, in Romania, on the film set of Blessed, (working title Samantha's Child) after playing his scenes for the day.
[edit] Books
David Hemmings (2004). Blow Up... and Other Exaggerations: The Autobiography of David Hemmings. ISBN 1-86105-789-X.
