Hugh Hudson, the director of Chariots of Fire, died at the age of 86 after a brief illness. According to his family, the “loving husband and father” died on Friday at Charing Cross Hospital in London.
His wife Maryam, son Thomas, and first wife Sue survive him. Nigel Havers, who played two British runners in the 1920s in the 1981 film, said he was “beyond grieved” by his passing.
Who Was Hugh Hudson?
Hugh Hudson was an English film director who lived from 25 August 1936 to 10 February 2023. He belonged to a group of British directors who began their careers directing television advertisements and documentaries before finding success in the cinema industry.
The 1981 picture Chariots of Fire, which won the Best Picture Academy Award and BAFTA Award, was directed by Hudson. It was named 19th on the British Film Institute’s list of the Top 100 British Films. While shooting movies, he continued to direct commercials, such as the British Airways face ad from 1989 that was created in association with the London-based ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi.
Hugh Hudson was born at 27 Welbeck Street in London, the son and only child of Michael Donaldson-Hudson and Jacynth Mary Ellerton, who were from Cheswardine in rural northeast Shropshire. Charles Donaldson-Hudson, Michael’s great-grandfather, served as a former Conservative lawmaker for Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.
Michael’s biological father was Ralph Charles Donaldson-Hudson. His paternal ancestors hail from Scotland and Cumberland. He was sent to boarding school in 1942 when he was six years old, and he later attended Eton College.
On January 28, 1956, he began his National Service in the Dragoon Guards, where he eventually attained the rank of second lieutenant. Until his release on January 16, 1960, he remained a lieutenant in the Army Reserve of Officers.