Roy Ward Baker is an English film director born in London on 19 December 1916 His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for best foreign English language film in 1959 His later career was varied and included many horror films and television shows Bakers early career from 1934 to 1939 was spent working for Gainsborough Pictures a British film production company based in Islington North London famous for its prestige productions His first jobs were menial making tea for crew members for example but by 1938 he had risen through the ranks to work as assistant director on Alfred Hitchcocks The Lady Vanishes He served in the army during World War II until transferring to the Army Kinematograph Unit in 1943 in order to make better use of skills developed in his prewar career producing documentaries and teaching materials for troops One of his superiors at the time was novelist Eric Ambler It was he who gave Baker his first big break directing The October Man from an Ambler screenplay in 1947 Ambler also adapted Walter Lords A Night to Remember for Bakers 1958 screen version During the early 1950s Baker worked for three years in Hollywood where he directed Marilyn Monroe in Dont Bother to Knock 1952 and Robert Ryan in 3D film noir Inferno 1953 He returned to the UK for the latter part of the decade but defected to television in the early 1960s He directed episodes of The Avengers The Saint and The Champions all adventure series created with an eye on the American market The lowbudget ethic of television production made him wellsuited to his next career move into cheaply produced but lavishlooking British horror films He directed amongst others Quatermass and the Pit 1967 The Vampire Lovers 1970 and Scars of Dracula 1970 for Hammer and Asylum 1972 for Amicus In the latter part of the 1970s he returned to television and throughout the 1980s continued to work in Television He retired in 1992
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