Leslie Norman (director)

Leslie Armande Norman (25 February 1911 – 18 February 1993) was an English film director, producer and editor.

Life and career
Norman was born on 25 February 1911 in Fulham, London, the second youngest of eleven children. Leaving school at 14, Norman worked in the film industry from the age of 16, working his way up from sweeper of the cutting-room floors at Ealing Studios to become an editor at 19.

His career spanned nearly fifty years, from 1930 until 1978. In that time he had many different roles in the industry, ending his career directing episodes of filmed television series. He directed three cinema films in the 1950s, The Night My Number Came Up (1955), the sci-fi horror film X the Unknown (1956) and the Second World War drama Dunkirk (1958), while his production credits include another World War II drama in the form of The Cruel Sea (1953). Amongst the films he directed in the early 1960s was the war drama The Long and the Short and The Tall (1960). His son, Barry, was a prominent UK film critic and broadcaster, whilst his daughter, Valerie, is a script editor and director.

In the 1960s, he worked as director on several notable British TV series including Gideon's Way (7 episodes), The Baron (3 episodes), The Saint (21 episodes), The Avengers (2 episodes), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (3 episodes), Department S (3 episodes), The Persuaders! (6 episodes).

Norman was forced into retirement after a laryngectomy for cancer in 1978. He died in Knebworth, Hertfordshire on 18 February 1993 at the age of 81 after suffering a seizure whilst driving near his home.

Editor

 * Potiphar's Wife (1931)
 * Lucky Girl (1932)
 * The Innocents of Chicago (1932)
 * Red Wagon (1933)
 * Facing the Music (1933)
 * The Old Curiosity Shop (1934)
 * Over the Garden Wall (1934)
 * Heart's Desire (1935)
 * Mimi (1935)
 * Faithful (1936)
 * Hoots Mon! (1940)
 *  The Prime Minister (1941)
 * Eureka Stockade (1949)

Producer

 * The Cruel Sea (1953)
 * West of Zanzibar (1954)

Director

 * Too Dangerous to Live (1939)
 * The Night My Number Came Up (1955)
 * X the Unknown (1956)
 * Dunkirk (1958)
 * Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1959)
 * Spare the Rod (1961)
 * The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961)
 * Mix Me a Person (1962)
 * A Sentimental Journey (Randall and Hopkirk) (1968)
 *  It's Supposed to be Thicker than Water (1968)