- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMichael Elias Balcon
- Nickname
- Mickey
- Michael Balcon started in films as a distributor, then a producer from the early 1920s, helping to launch the career of Alfred Hitchcock. In the 1930s, Balcon was prominent in building up a huge annual production programme of films for both Gainsborough and Gaumont-British. Head of MGM-British, 1936-38, then in charge of production at Ealing. Knighted in 1948. After Ealing, produced some films independently (A Boy Ten Feet Tall (1963)), and helped form Bryanston Films, a group of independent film makers, including several ex-Ealing colleagues such as Basil Dearden and Michael Relph. After a frustrating period as Chairman of British Lion (1964-68), in which he found it impossible to fulfill his commitment to support a continuity of indigenous production, he became Chairman of the British Institute's Experimental Film Fund before retiring in 1972.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseAileen Freda Leatherman(April 10, 1924 - October 17, 1977) (his death, 2 children)
- Children
- RelativesTamasin Day-Lewis(Grandchild)Daniel Day-Lewis(Grandchild)Gabriel-Kane Day Lewis(Great Grandchild)
- Grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tamasin Day-Lewis.
- Father of actress Jill Balcon, who was married to the poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis (aka Cecil Day-Lewis, and Jonathan Balcon, a former Lloyd's broker.
- In 1964 he took control of British Lion Films.
- Co-founder, along with Graham Cutts, of Gainsborough Pictures in 1924.
- Director and Head of Production at Ealing Studios from 1937-59.
- [1977, following publication of Charles Barr's "Ealing Studios"] A great many motives were attributed to why we made the films we did; all I can say is that we just enjoyed making films.
- We made films at Ealing that were good, bad and indifferent, but they were indisputably British. They were rooted in the soil of the country.
- I always look for people whose ideas coincide with mine, and then I'm ready to give them a chance to make a name for themselves.
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