Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an
English film director.
Early life
Frears was born in
Leicester,
England to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr. Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant.
[Stephen Frears Biography] He did not find out that his mother was
Jewish until he was in his late 20s.
[Hidden Heritage Inspires Director] He was educated at
Gresham's School, Norfolk from 1954 to 1959, and later went on to study law at
Trinity College, Cambridge from 1960 to 1963.
Career
After graduating from Cambridge, Frears worked as an assistant director on
Morgan! (1966) and
if.... (1968), but most of his early directing career was spent in television mainly for the BBC, but also for the commercial sector. He contributed to several high profile anthology series such as the
BBC's
Play for Today, and produced a series of
Alan Bennett's plays for
LWT, taking responsibility for working in the
gallery on
The Old Crowd while
Lindsay Anderson worked with the actors.
