Film director Alan Parker (center) died today after a lengthy illness. He was 76.
With more than two dozen films to his credit, Pink Floyd fans knew him best for directing 1982’s “Pink Floyd The Wall.”
Parker was nominated for Oscars twice — for “Midnight Express” (1978) and “Mississippi Burning” (1988) — and directed a number of musical films in addition to “The Wall,” including “The Commitments” (1991), “Evita” (1996) and “Fame” (1982).
“When I go to film festivals and they show my films, they always include ‘The Wall,’ and it’s always packed out,” he said in 2016. “So, it always appears wimpy to say I hated making it. I have mellowed a bit and say it was a ‘tortured but highly creative time’ – not to be repeated.”
Parker was one of an artistic trio that formed the film’s creative nucleus, which included animator Gerald Scarfe and Floyd’s Roger Waters.
