Alan Parker, born Islington in 1944, began his career in advertising (pubblicità) In the late 60’s he was one of a small group of British directors who revolutionized world advertising.
As a film director he started his career with the BBC Television film, The Evacuees. His first feature film was
Bugsy Malone(1975) a musical pastiche of 1920s gangster films with an entire cast of children (recitato da soli bambini). From this moment on his career was a series of successes:
- Midnight Express (1977) about prisons in Turkey; he won two Oscars.
- Fame (1979) a celebration of youth and the arts in New York which won two Academy Awards
- Shoot the Moon (1981) his most personal film starring Diane Keaton and Albert Finney .
- Pink Floyd – The Wall the film adaptation of the successful rock album.
- Birdy (1984) based on the William Wharton novel, starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine,
- Angel Heart (1986) starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet
- Mississippi Burning (1988) about Civil Rights starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe
- Come See the Paradise, (1989) against the internment (imprigionamento9 of Japanese Americans during World War II, starring Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita.
- The Commitments (1990) a story of a young Irish working- class soul band
- The Road to Wellville (1993) based on the novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle, and starring Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack and Dana Carvey.
- Evita (1996) based on the play by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce.
- Angela’s Ashes (1999 based on the book by Frank McCourt, starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle.
- The Life of David Gale (2003) a thriller set against the politics of capital punishment in the United States, starred Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney and was released in.
Alan Parker is also a novelist – Puddles In The Lane, (1977) and The Sucker’s Kiss (2003) – and a cartoonist – Hares in the Gate, (1982), Making Movies, (1998) and Will Write and Direct for Food (2005) . In 1995 Parker was awarded with a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the British film industry and he received a knighthood in 2002.