Asked what he did when not working, Noel Coward used to say: "I evade boredom." For film director John Schlesinger, who has died aged 77, the response was equally apt: "I couldn't bear the idea of not working," admitting that this attitude sometimes led to his acceptance of inferior projects.
From his student days he sought creative outlets, and even when wealthy and well into middle age, he never contemplated retiring. Although most famous for his movies - among them Midnight Cowboy, Sunday, Bloody Sunday and Marathon Man - he also worked in the theatre, the opera house, in television and as director of innumerable commercials.
Schlesinger's attitude to work made him impatient with fellow British directors, notably Lindsay Anderson, whom he considered overselective and unable (or, as he said, unwilling) to work regularly. In turn, some of his own dire commercial films contributed to a decline in his reputation.
Schlesinger was born in London into a comfortably off Jewish family (his father was a doctor), with whom he retained strong bonds. After school at Uppingham, he did his national service. At Balliol College, Oxford (1947-50), he continued his film-making activities. In his 20s, he began his acting career in The Alchemist, with the Oxford Players, and toured in numerous plays, culminating, in 1955, with Mourning Becomes Electra, directed by Peter Hall.
Much of Schlesinger's great skill with actors stemmed from these apprentice years, when he also acted in films, including the Boulting Brothers' Brothers In Law (1957), for Michael Powell in Oh! Rosalinda (1955) and as a German officer in Battle Of The River Plate (1956). On television, he was in episodes of Ivanhoe and Robin Hood.
He gained technical experience in television, first as part of the famous BBC Tonight programme, under Donald Baverstock, then Alastair Milne; then Monitor, where, guided by Huw Wheldon, he directed longer pieces.
Edgar Anstey, a distinguished figure in the British documentary movement, gave Schlesinger the 30-minute Terminus (1961) to direct and it made his name as a director. Set on Waterloo station, in his hands it became far more than an observation piece, with a poignant story of a little boy lost and with elements of drama and realism that foreshadowed his subsequent work. It won Schlesinger an award at Venice and recognition from Bafta.
In 1962, he made his first feature film, A Kind Of Loving, which remains one of the most attractive debuts in British cinema. The British realist movement was in full swing, following the free cinema movement and the success of Room At The Top, and Schlesinger joined Anderson, Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz in a series of films with working-class and regional backgrounds.
It was produced by Joseph Janni, to whom Schlesinger acknowledged a major debt, in the first of their six collaborations. In quick succession they made Billy Liar (1963), Darling (1965) and Far From The Madding Crowd (1967).
For A Kind Of Loving, Schlesinger gave Alan Bates his first star role as the young man who feels he has been trapped into marriage. That casting, too, began a lasting relationship.
Darling compounded Schlesinger's reputation, especially when the latter gained Julie Christie an Oscar as best actress.
As a reaction to these sombre black-and-white films, Schlesinger moved to produce a big-budget version of Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd, adapted by Frederic Raphael and superbly shot by Nicolas Roeg. It moved Schlesinger into the ranks of international acceptance and the overtures of Hollywood. It also reunited him with Bates and Christie, and introduced him to Peter Finch.
Midnight Cowboy (1969) was long in gestation but, as Schlesinger's first American film, it proved the most significant of his career, bringing him many awards, including the 1970 Oscar for best director. Thanks also to an ongoing share of the profits, it ensured his fortune.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971) starred Finch as a homosexual doctor in love with a young man who also shares his favours with a woman (Glenda Jackson). Set in the middle-class homes of Hampstead, this elegant work benefited from the heartbreaking sensibility of Finch's performance and it remains Schlesinger's best film, alongside his debut and a later work for television, again with a gay theme, An Englishman Abroad (1983).
A much-needed commercial comeback followed with the thriller Marathon Man (1976), starring Dustin Hoffman as the victim of a sadistic Nazi dentist (Laurence Olivier).
The 1970s witnessed some of Schlesinger's more spectacular theatrical flops. His only musical, I And Albert, was, in his own words, "a fairly horrendous experience". A 1975 production of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House for the National Theatre fared better, but a couple of years later came a calamitous production of Julius Caesar for Peter Hall, also at the National.
Yanks (1979) was followed by his greatest flop, the American-made comedy Honky Tonk Freeway, withdrawn a week after release.
Schlesinger moved into television, a medium he had previously resisted as too ephemeral, and directed a decent version of Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables and the memorable An Englishman Abroad (both 1983).
He directed, for BBC television A Question Of Attribution (1992), with James Fox as Sir Anthony Blunt in an encounter with Queen Elizabeth (Prunella Scales). And he enjoyed acclaim for his stylish version of Cold Comfort Farm in 1995.
John Richard Schlesinger: born February 16th, 1926; died July 25th, 2003