LONDON (AP) - Brian Gibson, English-born director of acclaimed films including "The Josephine Baker Story" and "What's Love Got To Do with It?" about the life of singer Tina Turner, has died at age 59, his representatives said Monday. Gibson, who had been suffering from Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, died on Jan. 4 in London, according to the Artists Independent Network. A graduate of Cambridge University, he started directing scientific documentaries for the British Broadcasting Corp. in the 1960s and went on to direct some of the corporation's most praised films. In 1976, he directed Dennis Potter's "Where Adam Stood," based on an autobiography by the Christian fundamentalist Edmund Gosse. The pair later collaborated on Potter's "Blue Remembered Hills," a simple tale set in wartime England in which adults play children. It won the British Film and Television Arts awards for best film and best director and helped launch the career of one of its stars, Helen Mirren. Gibson's first feature film was "Breaking Glass," a raw portrait of a punk rock singer, which brought him to Hollywood's notice. He made a number of films in Hollywood, including many for HBO. They included "The Juror" (1996), starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin, and "What's Love Got to Do with It?" (1993), which won Academy Award nominations for its stars Laurence Fishbourne and Angela Bassett. "The Josephine Baker Story," produced in 1991, garnered the best director Emmy as well as a Golden Globe for actor Lou Gosset. Other pieces for HBO included "Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story" (1989), about the famous Nazi hunter, that was nominated for several Golden Globe and Emmy awards; and the miniseries "Drug Wars: The Camarena Story," about the life and death of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena. In the late 1990s, he directed a number of small budget independent films, including "Still Crazy in London," a parody of aging rockers that starred Bill Nighy and the comedian Billy Connolly and won several Golden Globe nominations. He is survived by his wife Paula Guarderas Gibson, two daughters and his mother Victoria and sister June. The funeral was planned in London next week, and memorial services later in London and Los Angeles. _______________________________________________ Sndbox mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://a8.mewebdns-a8.com/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
