
Ken Russell
Biography
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was an English film director. He is known for his pioneering work in television and film, and for his controversial style. He has been criticized as being over-obsessed with sexuality and the church. His subject matter is often about famous composers, or based on other works of art which he adapts loosely. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he did creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios.
He is best known for his Oscar-winning romantic drama Women in Love (1969), the notoriously controversial The Devils (1971), the rock musical Tommy (1975), and the science fiction film Altered States (1980).
One noted admirer, British film critic Mark Kermode, attempting to sum up the director's achievement, called Russell; "somebody who proved that British cinema didn't have to be about kitchen-sink realism – it could be every bit as flamboyant as Fellini. He now makes very strange experimental films like Lion's Mouth and Revenge of the Elephant Man, and they are as edgy and out there as the work he made in the 1970s."
Acting (42 movies)

Whore
1991

Vaughan Williams: A Symphonic Portrait
1983

Gothic
1987

The Real Blue Nuns
2006

Tommy
1975

Trapped Ashes
2006

Valentino
1977

Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
1966

Salome's Last Dance
1988

The Real Oliver Reed
2000

The Fall of the Louse of Usher
2002

A Kitten for Hitler
2007

Hell on Earth: The Desecration & Resurrection of The Devils
2002

Music for the Movies: Georges Delerue
1995

Savage Messiah
1972

The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch
1995

Mr. Nice
2010

The Who: One Band's Explosive Story
2022

Vem Var Dracula
1996

Your Honour, I Object! Guccione V Russell
1987

Don’t Shoot the Composer
1966

Brothers of the Head
2006

Ken Russell's ABC of British Music
1988

Director of Devils
2012

A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema
1986

10 Best Elgar
2007

The Russia House
1990

Ken Russell: A Bit of a Devil
2012

Song of Summer
1968

Colour Me Kubrick
2005

The Lair of the White Worm
1988

Walk With The Damned
1961

The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
1992

The Aristofrogs
2010

A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible
1989

Ken Russell: In Search of the English Folk Song
1997

The Who: The Kids Are Alright
1979

Twiggy
2025

Elgar: Fantasy of a Composer on a Bicycle
2002

Alice in Russialand
1995

100 Greatest Sexy Moments
2003

Tales of Erotica
1996
Directing (82 movies)

French Dressing
1964

Billion Dollar Brain
1967

Tommy
1975

The Lair of the White Worm
1988

Whore
1991

Ken Russell: In Search of the English Folk Song
1997

Altered States
1980

The Devils
1971

The Boy Friend
1971

Gothic
1987

Crimes of Passion
1984

The Rainbow
1989

Trapped Ashes
2006

Valentino
1977

Women in Love
1969

Lisztomania
1975

Salome's Last Dance
1988

The Music Lovers
1971

Mahler
1974

Savage Messiah
1972

The Fall of the Louse of Usher
2002

Dante's Inferno
1967

Song of Summer
1968

Dogboys
1998

A Kitten for Hitler
2007

Dance of the Seven Veils
1970

Amelia and the Angel
1958

Elgar: Portrait of a Composer
1962

Tales of Erotica
1996

Mindbender
1996
Boudica Bites Back
2009

Prisoner of Honor
1991

The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch
1995

The Diary of a Nobody
1964

A House in Bayswater
1960

Pop Goes the Easel
1962
Revenge of the Elephant Man
2004
Lion's Mouth
2000

The Light Fantastic
1960

Vaughan Williams: A Symphonic Portrait
1983

London Moods
1961

The Preservation Man
1962

From Spain to Streatham
1959

The Lonely Shore
1962

Bela Bartók
1964

The Debussy Film
1965
Knights on Bikes
1956

Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
1966

Always on Sunday
1965

Antonio Gaudí
1961

Shelagh Delaney's Salford
1960
Old Battersea House
1961

Gordon Jacob
1959

Don’t Shoot the Composer
1966

Scottish Painters
1959
The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner
1990

Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill
1961

Variations on a Mechanical Theme
1959
Peepshow
1956

Mr Chesher’s Traction Engines
1962
Journey Into a Lost World
1960

Faust
1985

Alice in Russialand
1995

The Planets
1983

A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible
1989

Ken Russell's ABC of British Music
1988
The Miners' Picnic by Ken Russell
2005

Prokofiev
1961

Treasure Island
1995
The Mystery of Dr Martinu
1993

Pandora's Box: It's All Coming Back to Me Now
1989
Watch the Birdie
2007

Aria
1987

The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
1992

Elgar: Fantasy of a Composer on a Bicycle
2002

Il Mefistofele
1989
Charlotte Brontë Enters the Big Brother House
2006

John Betjeman: A Poet in London
1959

A Bedlington Miners' Picnic
1960

Portrait of a Goon
1959

Women and Men: Stories of Seduction
1990

Lourdes
1958