David Lean

Sir David Lean CBE 25 March 1908 16 April 1991 was an English film director producer screenwriter and editor Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema he is best remembered for adapting the works of Charles Dickens and Noël Coward and for his large scale period epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 Doctor Zhivago 1965 Ryans Daughter 1970 and A Passage to India 1984 Acclaimed and praised by directors such as Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick Lean was voted 9th greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute Sight Sound Directors Top Directors poll 2002 Nominated seven times for the Academy Award for Best Director winning twice for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia he has seven films in the British Film Institutes Top 100 British Films with three of them being in the top five