John Schlesinger's outstanding work as a director over the past four decades includes such popular and highly acclaimed films as Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, The Day of the Locust, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Far From the Madding Crowd, and Darling, to name a few.

Mr. Schlesinger received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director with only his fourth film, Darling (1965), and went on to win the Best Director Oscar soon after for his 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, which also won the Best Picture Oscar. Mr. Schlesinger was also nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).

As a senior statesman of the cinema, John Schlesinger remains true to a humanistic vision of telling stories that matter. Running through all his work is a probing vein of curiosity about what makes humans act in the wondrous, funny, scary and loving ways they do. His films are a demonstration of his vision and extraordinary command of his craft.

John Schlesinger grew up in Hampstead, England, the oldest of five children. He studied English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford, where he also acted in university theatre productions. Professionally he began acting with several repertory companies and worked in numerous television productions.

Mr. Schlesinger made short films for the BBC, including the documentary Terminus, which won numerous awards and led to his first feature film, A Kind of Loving, starring the then unknown Alan Bates. His next film, Billy Liar, gave Julie Christie her first leading role in a feature. Next came he highly successful Darling, for which Mr. Schlesinger won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Director and received his first nomination for an Academy Award.

During the late 1960s Mr. Schlesinger directed Far From the Madding Crowd, starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and the highly successful Midnight Cowboy, his first American film, for which he won the Oscar. He also received the DGA's Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award for Midnight Cowboy. He returned to London to direct Sunday Bloody Sunday, starring Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch. The film received four Oscar nominations.

Mr. Schlesinger headed back to America to direct The Day of the Locust, based on the novel by Nathanael West, and followed this with his first thriller, Marathon Man, in 1976, starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier.

Other films Mr. Schlesinger has directed include Yanks, An Englishman Abroad, The Falcon and the Snowman, The Believers, Madame Sousatzka, The Innocent, Cold Comfort Farm, and Eye for an Eye. His latest project, the film The Next Best Thing, starring Rupert Everett and Madonna, brings Mr. Schlesinger full circle back to the keen social awareness, fascination with love's complexities, and penchant for drawing out big performances that distinguished his early work. An actor himself, Mr. Schlesinger has helped to make stars of such performers as Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight.

Mr. Schlesinger has also continually explored his unique perspective in numerous ways outside the cinema. He has directed several operas, as well as a number of stage plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in London, including Timon of Athens, Hearthbreak House and Julius Caesar.

In 1970, John Schlesinger was made CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II.