Trivia

He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to the film industry.

Brother-in-law of Sydney Tafler and father of John Gilbert.

Has directed four actors to Oscar nominations: Michael Caine (Best Actor, Alfie (1966); Best Actor, Educating Rita (1983)), Vivien Merchant (Best Supporting Actress, Alfie (1966)), Julie Walters (Best Actress, Educating Rita (1983)), and Pauline Collins (Best Actress, Shirley Valentine (1989)).

Attached to the US Air Corps Film Unit during the Second World War.

He was asked to direct For Your Eyes Only (1981), but declined, as he was burnt out having made two Bond films in succession.

His mother was of Jewish descent.

He first worked behind the camera in the RAF during WWII, making several documentary shorts.

On working with Orson Welles on Ferry to Hong Kong, he said that it was: "dreadful, it was my nightmare film. It was a dreadful film, and everything was wrong with it; principally him [Welles].".

He was asked to direct On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), but declined.

Was invalided out of the RAF in 1944 and thereafter joined British Instructional as a director of documentaries.

In his Desert Island Discs appearance, he said that his biggest mistake was failing to direct Oliver! (1968). Lionel Bart had assured Gilbert that nobody else would do the film, but Gilbert was contractually committed to Paramount to make a film (that he has since refused to name), which caused him to withdraw from the project.

In his Desert Island Discs appearance, he said that The Adventurers (1970) was a disaster, and that he should never have made it.

As a child actor in films in the 1920s and 1930s, he was the breadwinner for his family.

All My Flashbacks: The Autobiography of Lewis Gilbert, Sixty Years a Film Director was published by Reynolds & Hearn in 2010.

When travelling on trains, his parents frequently hid him in the luggage rack, to avoid paying a fare for him.

On April 30, 2001, he was awarded the Fellowship of the British Film Institute.

His family included several music hall performers. He was a child actor, and had small roles in a few movies as a teenager.

Wanted to make an adaptation of "The Blue Lagoon" after the success of Franco Zeffirelli's version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1968), but after an agreement with the estate of Henry De Vere Stacpoole could not be reached, he made a movie based on elements of "The Blue Lagoon," Friends (1971).

Passed away on February 23, 2018, just eleven days shy of his 98th birthday.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry. In 2001, he was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute, the highest accolade in the British film industry.