Don Sharp

Early life

Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own claims, even though reference sources cite 1922 as his year of birth. He was the second of four children.

He attended St Virgil's College and began appearing regularly in theatre productions at the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart, where he trained under a young Stanley Burbury.^[1] Among the plays Sharp appeared in were You Can't Take It With You and Our Town. He also directed a production of Stage Door.^[2]

War Service

He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 7 April 1941 and was transferred to Singapore. In addition to his military duties he appeared in radio and on stage with a touring English company. Among his radio performances were Escape and the Barretts of Wimpole Street.

He was invalided out before the city fell to the Japanese. He returned to Melbourne and recuperated at Heidelberg Hospital. He spent the majority of his war service in Melbourne, appearing in amateur theatre productions of "Quality Street" and "The Late Christopher Bean" as well as recorded broadcasts and ABC plays.

In early 1943 he moved to Hobart. He appeared in a theatre production of Interval by Sumner Locke Elliiot, also serving as assistant director.^[3][4] Following this he appeared in a theatre revue, Khaki Capers, notably in a sketch which figured a flag flown over the air force station in Singapore which Sharp had brought back with him.^[5]

Sharp was discharged on 17 March 1944 at the rank of corporal.^[6][7]

Early acting career

After the war Sharp worked as an actor on stage and radio throughout Australia, primarily in Melbourne. He worked for Morris West's production company in radio and toured Australia and New Zealand for J. C Williamsons Ltd in such plays as Kiss and Tell (1944–45), Arsenic and Old Lace (1945) and The Dancing Years. He played a small role in Smithy (1946), one of the few feature films shot in Australia at this time.^[8]

Sharp also toured Japan performing for the occupying troops there. From Japan he went to London in 1948.

Move to England

Arriving in England in 1948. Sharp got some stage work. He then co-wrote a film, Ha'penny Breeze (1950), with a fellow Australian, Frank Wirth. Together with another man, Darcy Conyers, they formed a production company and raised finance to make the £8,000 film. Sharp also played a leading role and helped with the direction. The film was not a large hit but it was theatrically released.^[9][10] Sharp also got a small role in a British radio adaptation of Robbery Under Arms (1950).^[11]

Sharp was unable to cash in on Ha'penny Breeze as he came down with tuberculosis and spent two years in hospital. When he recovered he got some acting roles in such films as The Planter's Wife (1952), Appointment in London (1953), The Cruel Sea (1953) and You Know What Sailors Are (1954).

He also played the character Stephen "Mitch" Mitchell in the 1953 British science fiction radio series, Journey into Space. He began to turn increasingly to writing and directing.^[2] Sharp said his background as an actor was useful for his development as a director, in particular it developed his sense of timing:

You’ve got to know, for example, a thing I was taught early in theatre – if there's a scene in a movie, in a play, that always gets good laughs, on a good night, when there's a good and laughing audience, you’ll get laughs in the build-up to it, in the five or ten minutes beforehand, because it's a good audience who's appreciative of what's going on. On a bad night, when the audience are not laughing, increase your pace, get them at the point. And this teaches you a control of speed and how to control an audience. . . . Working with good actors, you get a feeling of timing with them; although sometimes the timing between them can be good but their overall pace, which is quite different, can be wrong – its context in the film, because of the situation in the film, perhaps there should be that little more urgency, therefore pace, in the scene.^[12]

He worked on the screenplay to Background (1953). A new government-backed film company, Group Three, had a brief to support new talent and Sharp sold them an original script called Child's Play (1954). Group Three liked it and bought a story of Sharp's, originally called The Norfolk Story.^[13] He turned this into a novel called Conflict of Wings (1954), the title under which it was filmed; Sharp collaborated on the screenplay with John Pudney.^[14]

He and Pudney then wrote The Blue Peter (1955) for Group Three.^[15] Sharp also directed second unit.

Director

Child's Play and Blue Peter were children's films. Sharp turned director for The Stolen Airliner (1955) for the Children's Film Foundation, based on a script by Pudney.

Sharp made some documentaries: As Old as the Windmill (1957), The Changing Life (1958), and Keeping the Peace (1959).

After directing second unit on Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) and Harry Black (1958), he wrote and directed The Golden Disc (1959), the first British rock 'n' roll movie – released a year before the Cliff Richard vehicle Expresso Bongo (1959) and a full two years ahead of Beat Girl (1960). It starred Mary Steele, who Sharp married two years earlier.

He wrote and directed another film for the Children's Film Foundation, The Adventures of Hal 5 (1959). He followed it with Linda (1960), a teen drama starring Carol White for Independent Artists, which went out as a support feature for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and is now considered a lost film. Then came a low-budget thriller, also for Independent Artists, The Professionals (1960), which screened on US TV as part of the Kraft Mystery Theatre. He went into TV, doing episodes of Ghost Squad (1961–62) and The Human Jungle (1963).

He directed second unit on The Fast Lady (1962) for IA.

He directed Two Guys Abroad (1962) with George Raft, which was intended as a pilot for a TV series or as a B movie, but ended up not being released at all. Another teen movie in the vein of The Golden Disc, It's All Happening (1963), with Tommy Steele, was more widely seen.

Hammer Films and Harry Alan Towers

Sharp received an offer from Hammer Films to direct the vampire movie The Kiss of the Vampire (1963). According to his obituary Sharp helped make an "atmospheric, suspenseful gothic horror and giving a depth to the characters that was sometimes missing in Hammer's other vampire productions."^[2] Kiss of the Vampire is now one of Hammer's highest regarded horrors; Sharp's New York Times obituary says "Not a few Hammer fans contend that "Kiss of the Vampire" is one of the greatest Gothic horror movies ever made".^[16]

Sharp followed it with another in the horror genre, Witchcraft (1964), for producer Robert L. Lippert. He returned to Hammer for a swashbuckler, The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964). It starred Christopher Lee, who would make several movies with Sharp.

He contributed to the script of Legend of a Gunfighter (1964) and directed second unit on Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). He directed Curse of the Fly (1965) for Lippert, then reteamed with Lee for The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), produced by Harry Alan Towers. This was a big hit and led to four sequels; Sharp only directed the first of these, but he worked several more time for Towers who later said "I kept using Don because his films came in on budget and were without exception very successful. On top of that he was a most agreeable person of very good character – no tantrums – clear headed – resourceful; a gentleman too."^[12]

The movie would give Sharp a reputation for action movies. He later stated his philosophy:

You can’t do big action sequences and then have flabby, everyday stuff round it. Those movies have got to have a feeling of latent energy in there. . . . You can’t do action sequences as an entity in themselves. They’ve got to be part of the way a whole movie is developing. You’ve got to have, apart from energy, a very good sense of editing, what a camera can do... a sense of timing... and an ability to have a visual of exactly what it's going to look like... Also, I enjoyed it.... some directors... didn’t get the same enjoyment out of it; it was a necessity rather than a pleasure. I always liked doing it, liked doing action .^[12]

It was back to Hammer for Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966), with Lee in the title role. Sharp followed it with a spy spoof for Towers, Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), starring Tony Randall. For Towers he also made The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), again with Lee.

Sharp then made two films shot in Ireland: The Violent Enemy (1967), a thriller about the IRA from a novel by Jack Higgins, and Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967), an adventure tale in the vein of Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines for Towers.

He returned to TV, directing some episodes of The Avengers (1968) and The Champions (1969), before writing and directing Taste of Excitement (1969), for the same producers as The Violent Enemy.

Sharp said he was "out of work for about a year"^[12] when he got an offer to direct a boat chase sequence for Puppet on a Chain (1971), based on a novel by Alistair Maclean. The producers liked his work so much they hired him to shoot some additional footage. In 2007 Sharp said the film earned him a reputation as "The Doctor" and he was still getting royalties from the movie.^[12]

He directed a pair of horror movies – Dark Places (1973), with Lee, and Psychomania (1973), the final movie of George Sanders. The latter has become a cult classic.

Callan (1974) was a big screen adaptation of the TV series starring Edward Woodward (1967–72). It was followed by another thriller, Hennessy (1975), with Rod Steiger in the title role, as an IRA man out to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1975 Sharp worked on producer Harry Saltzman's abandoned pet project The Micronauts, a "shrunken man" epic to have starred Gregory Peck and Lee Remick.^[17]

Sharp directed the fourth version of The Four Feathers (1978), made for American TV but released theatrically in some markets. He then directed the remake of The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), with Robert Powell (who had been in Four Feathers). Producer Greg Smith said he hired Sharp "because he's one of Britain's best action adventure directors and he was familiar with the period."^[18]

He directed (and co-wrote) Bear Island (1979), an adventure tale from the novel by Alistair Maclean starring Richard Widmark, Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave. It was one of the most expensive Canadian films ever made and a box office flop.^[19]

Later career

Sharp returned to TV with episodes of Hammer House of Horror (1980) and QED (1982) (TV series). He had a big ratings success with the mini series A Woman of Substance (1984), based on the novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, with Jenny Seagrove and Deborah Kerr.

After What Waits Below (1985) with Powell, he focused on television. Tusitala (1986) was an Australian mini series shot in Samoa. Hold the Dream (1986), was a mini-series sequel to Woman of Substance, with Jenny Seagrove reprising her role. Tears in the Rain (1988) was a TV movie from a novel by Pamela Wallace which gave an early starring role to Sharon Stone. Act of Will (1989) was another mini series based on a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, which starred Liz Hurley.

Personal life

Sharp died on 14 December 2011, after a short spell in hospital.^[2] He was survived by his wife Mary Steele, two sons and a daughter. Another son, Massive Attack producer Jonny Dollar, predeceased him.

He was previously married to an Australian actress, Gwenda Wilson. They married in 1945 after appearing in Kiss and Tell together on stage^[20][21]

In 1956 he married actress Mary Steele.

As actor

• Smithy (1946)^[8]
• Ha'penny Breeze (1950, also writer, producer) – Johnny Craig
• The Planter's Wife (1952) – Lieutenant Summers (uncredited)
• Appointment in London (1953) – Mid Upper Gunner (uncredited)
• The Cruel Sea (1953) – Lieutenant-Commander (final film role)
• You Know What Sailors Are (1954)
• Journey into Space (1953–54) (radio serial)
• The Red Planet (1954–55) (radio serial)

As writer only

• Background (1953)
• Conflict of Wings (1954) – also novel
• Child's Play (1954)
• Legend of a Gunfighter (1964)

2nd Unit director

• The Blue Peter (1955) – also script
• Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)
• The Fast Lady (1962)
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
• Puppet on a Chain (1971) – also script

As director

• The Stolen Airliner (1955) – also script
• As Old as the Windmill (1957) (documentary)^[22]
• The Changing Life (1958) (documentary)^[23]
• Keeping the Peace (1959) (documentary)^[24]
• The Golden Disc (1959) – also script
• The Adventures of Hal 5 (1959) – also script
• Linda (1960)
• The Professionals (1960)
• Ghost Squad (1961–62) (TV series)
• The Human Jungle (1963) (TV series) – episode "A Friend of the Serjeant Major"
• Two Guys Abroad (1962)
• It's All Happening (1963)
• The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
• Witchcraft (1964)
• The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964)
• Curse of the Fly (1965)
• The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
• Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966)
• Our Man in Marrakesh (1966)
• The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)
• The Violent Enemy (1967)
• Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967)
• The Avengers (1968) – episodes "Get-A-Way!", "The Curious Case of the Countless Clues", "Invasion of the Earthmen"
• The Champions (1969) (TV series) – episode "Project Zero"
• Taste of Excitement (1969) – also script
• Dark Places (1973) – also script
• Psychomania (1973)
• Callan (1974)
• Dark Places (1974)
• Hennessy (1975)
• The Four Feathers (1978)
• The Thirty Nine Steps (1978)
• Bear Island (1979) – also script
• Hammer House of Horror (1980)
• QED (1982) (TV series) – episode "The Limehouse Connection"
• A Woman of Substance (1984) (TV)
• What Waits Below (1985)
• Tusitala (1986) (mini-series)
• Hold the Dream (1986) (TV)
• Tears in the Rain (1988) (TV)
• Act of Will (1989) (TV)

Unmade projects

Sharp was announced for the following projects which were not made:

• Sleeper Awakens (circa 1967) from the novel by H. G. Wells with Christopher Lee and Vincent Price for Harry Alan Towers^[25]
• Spaceborn – an action suspense story that was to start filming in 1972^[26]
• Philby (circa 1977) – biopic of Kim Philby starring Michael Caine in the lead role supported by Nicol Williamson as Guy Burgess and Vanessa Redgrave as Philby's first wife^[27]