Film director Ken Russell, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1969 film Women In Love, has died at the age of 84. His son, Alex Verney-Elliott, said he died in hospital on Sunday following a series of strokes. During his career, he became known for his controversial films including Women In Love, which featured Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestling nude. He also directed the infamous religious drama The Devils and The Who's rock opera, Tommy, in 1975. "My father died peacefully, he died with a smile on his face," Mr Verney-Elliott said. "Ken Russell was a brave and fearless film-maker who didn't mind, and even enjoyed, raising the hackles of people. He was fiercely devoted to making films about the arts, and made some wonderful work for television. At a time when British television was dominated by kitchen sink realism along came Ken who was into symbolism and metaphor. A classic film scene is the 1812 Overture sequence in The Music Lovers (1970). Richard Chamberlain, as Tchaikovsky, is festooned with ribbons while people's heads are blown off by cannonballs. It's the sort of thing that only Ken Russell would have made. He sometimes had an eccentric take, he was never less than entertaining. In later years, he found it difficult to get financing, but he did keep turning out films of note. In the 1960s and first half of the 70s he was very important. He brightened up British cinema no end." Glenda Jackson, who gave an Oscar-winning performance in Women In Love and starred in a number of Russell's other films including Music Lovers, told the BBC it was "just wonderful to work with him and to work with him as often as I did". "He created the kind of climate in which actors could do their job and I loved him dearly." Jackson added that she believed the director had been overlooked by the British film industry, saying it was "a great shame". "It was almost as if he never existed - I find it utterly scandalous for someone who was so innovative and a film director of international stature," she said. Joely Richardson, who starred opposite Sean Bean in Russell's 1993 BBC TV series Lady Chatterley, said: "I will forever feel privileged and honoured to have worked with the great Ken Russell. "More than that, I was extremely fond of the man himself." Film-maker Michael Winner hailed Russell's "duplicity of mind", adding he had made an "enormous contribution" to British cinema. "He pushed the barriers completely and got away with it sometimes and didn't others, but he made some startling movies," said. "He had an eye for the composition of each image on the screen - a great eye for imagery and then, of course, he had a great idea for the grotesque." Friend and cultural commentator Norman Lebrecht said: "Among many achievements that spring to mind, he made British cinema less insular and self-referential. "He was also a leading creative force in the history of British television. He will be widely mourned." Russell later returned to more small budget, but no less flamboyant fare, including Crimes of Passion, Gothic, Salome's Last Dance and the cult horror-comedy The Lair of the White Worm, starring Hugh Grant. The director also made an adaptation of DH Lawrence's The Rainbow followed by the gritty film, Whore, and even tried his hand at music videos, making Nikita for Sir Elton John. Many of Russell's later films were dismissed as too eclectic and by the 1990s he found it almost impossible to get funding for his work. He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother. He lasted just four days before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant, the late Jade Goody. The director is survived by his wife, Elize.
