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Michael Radford was born in New Delhi, India, to an English father and an Austrian mother. He grew up mainly in the Middle East, where his father served in the British Army, and was educated at Bedford School and at Worcester College, Oxford. At the age of 25, having been a teacher for a number of years in Edinburgh, he was accepted into the National Film School and became one of the first 25 students in its inaugural year.

Upon graduating in 1974 he embarked on a series of documentaries, mainly for the BBC. These included "The Madonna and the Volcano" (Grand Prix Nyon Documentary Festival 1976) and "The Last Stronghold of the Pure Gospel". In 1980 he directed his first feature film for BBC Scotland, entitled "The White Bird Passes," adapted from the novel by Jessie Kesson and winner of the Scottish Radio Industries Award in that year. It was the success of this collaboration that led to the writing and directing of "Another Time, Another Place" his first feature film for the cinema, which was selected for the Quinzaine des Realisateurs at Cannes in 1983 and won fifteen major prizes at festivals around the world. The critical success of this film launched his career in feature films.

Radford’s next film, made the following year (1984), was the cinematic adaptation of George Orwell’s book of the same name and starred Richard Burton and John Hurt. Radford’s "1984" won the British Film Award for Best Film and Best Actor, as well as numerous other international prizes.

In 1987 he made his next film ‘White Mischief’ starring Greta Scacchi and Joss Ackland. Although the film has now become something of a cult movie, at the time of its release it was a commercial failure and Radford did not make another film for over six years.

During this period he went to live first in France and then Italy, writing screenplays and directing commercials. It was his longstanding friendship with the Italian actor, Massimo Troisi that led to the writing and making of "Il Postino". Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, and winner of the Oscar for Best Music, it garnered over 35 international awards, including the BAFTA awards for Best Director and Best Foreign Film. It was for a long time the biggest grossing foreign language film in the history of cinema.

Radford then directed "B Monkey" with Asia Argento, Rupert Everett and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, his first film in Britain for eight years,  and in 1999 "Dancing at the Blue Iguana", an improvised film set in an LA strip club and made with an ensemble group of actors, including Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh.

September 2000 found him directing Daryl Hannah in his first West End play "The Seven Year Itch".

The following year, along with fifteen other major directors from around the world, he contributed to a compilation of short films on the subject of time entitled "Ten Minutes Older". Radford's contribution, a sci-fi film entitled "Addicted to the Stars" starring Daniel Craig premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2003.

In 2003 he adapted and directed William Shakespeare’s "The Merchant of Venice", starring Al Pacino as Shylock, along with Jeremy Irons as Antonio and Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2004.

In the summer of the same year, he journeyed to Santiago in Chile where he directed Hector Noguera the well- known Chilean actor in the play “Novecento” by Alessandro Barrico at the Teatro Camino. It was subsequently voted South American production of the year.

His current film "Flawless", a heist movie set in the 1960s starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore is due out in 2008.

Presently he is in preproduction on "La Mula", his first foreign language film since "Il Postino. Based on the novel by Juan Eslava Galan, it is the story of a muleteer during the Spanish Civil War. It will be shot in Spanish and stars Oscar Jaenada and Maria Valverde.

Michael Radford speaks four languages and has homes in London and Los Angeles where he lives with his second wife, Emma, and his children: his son Felix, born in 1991 to his first wife, his two stepsons, and his daughter Amaryllis, born in 2005.

Michael Radford last updated his biography in December 2007