Paul Almond

Canadian television and motion picture screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist

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Paul Almond

Almond at Victoria Hall in Westmount, Quebec

Born| (1931-04-26)April 26, 1931

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Died| April 9, 2015(2015-04-09) (aged 83)

Malibu, California, U.S.

Occupations|

* Novelist
* film director
* film producer
* screenwriter

Years active| 1955–1992
Spouses|

Geneviève Bujold

(m. 1967⁠-⁠1974)​

Joan Harwood Elkins

(m. 1976⁠-⁠2015)​

Children| 1
Parent(s)| Eric Almond
Rene Almond

Paul Almond OC RCA (April 26, 1931[1] – April 9, 2015) was a Canadian television and motion picture screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is most known for being the director of the first film in the Up series.

## Life and career[edit]

Paul Almond attended Bishop's College School, McGill University and Balliol College, Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics, Economics; edited the University magazine, Isis; played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club; and served as president of the university Poetry Society.

At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he worked primarily as a director and producer, and also wrote several scripts. He did similar work in England for the BBC, ABC Weekend TV, and Granada TV, where he created the ground-breaking documentary Seven Up!, before embarking on a career as a feature-length film-maker.

In the late 1960s, he attempted to establish a high quality Canadian art cinema with his understated and highly interiorized films Isabel (1968), The Act of the Heart (1970) and Journey (1972), featuring his wife at the time, actress Geneviève Bujold. These films met some critical resistance in Canada, but the trilogy was Almond's most ambitious work and a distinctive contribution to Canadian film.

After an absence from filmmaking of almost a decade, Almond directed three more films: Ups and Downs (1983); Captive Hearts (1987); and The Dance Goes On (1991), featuring Bujold and their son Matthew Almond.

In addition to his television and film work, Almond also produced and directed several plays for television by such authors as Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, William Shakespeare, as well as creating his own adaptations of works by Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Henry James, Somerset Maugham, among others.

In later years, Almond authored eight novels in the Alford Saga. The final novel is titled The Inheritor, a stand-alone autobiographical roman à clef about the remarkable life, loves, agonies, achievements and awards of a prestigious Canadian movie producer, director, and author. It was published in April 2015 by Red Deer Press.

Almond was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001, and given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Canada in 2007. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[2]

Almond was first married to National Ballet of Canada leading dancer Angela Leigh, then to Geneviève Bujold from 1967 to 1974. Their son, Matthew James Almond, was born in 1968. In 1976 he married photographer Joan Harwood Elkins.

Almond maintained a home in Malibu, California, in addition to the Almond hereditary family farm in Shigawake, Quebec.

Almond died on April 9, 2015, in Beverly Hills, California, of cardiac problems from which he had suffered for several years.[3]

## Filmography[edit]

* Macbeth (1961)
* Backfire! (1962)
* October Beach (1964)
* Seven Up! (1964)
* Isabel (1968), (Isabel was a box office success and won four Etrogs at the 1968 Canadian Film Awards, and Almond was nominated as best director of the year by the Directors Guild of America.)
* The Act of the Heart (1970), (Canadian Film Award for Best Director. The Act of the Heart won five Canadian Film Awards in 1970.)
* Journey (1972)
* Every Person Is Guilty (1979)
* Final Assignment (1980)
* Ups and Downs (1983)
* Captive Hearts (1987)
* The Dance Goes On / Le Temps retrouvé (1992)

## Bibliography[edit]

### Novels[edit]

* La Vengeance des Dieux (Art Global Publishers, 1999)

The Alford Saga:

* The Deserter (McArthur & Co, 2010)
* The Survivor (McArthur & Co, 2011)
* The Pioneer (McArthur & Co, 2012)
* The Pilgrim (McArthur & Co, 2012)
* Le Déserteur (Quebec-Amerique, 2013)
* The Chaplain (Sulby Hall Publishers, 2013)
* Le Défricheur (Quebec-Amerique, 2013)
* The Gunner (Red Deer Press, 2014)
* Les Bâtisseurs (Quebec-Amerique, 2014)
* The Hero (Red Deer Press, 2014)
* The Inheritor (Red Deer Press, 2015)

### Biography[edit]

* High Hopes: Coming of Age in the mid-Century (ECW Press, 1999)(with Michael Ballantyne)
* The Inheritor (Red Deer Press, 2015. Released in April 2015 by Red Deer Press as the eighth and final novel in the Alford Saga, The Inheritor is a stand-alone autobiographical roman à clef about the remarkable life, loves, agonies and achievements of one of Canada's most distinguished film and television producer-directors)

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Canadian Film Encyclopedia - Paul Almond". legacy.tiff.net. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
2. ^ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 2011-05-26.
3. ^ Fox, Margalit. "Paul Almond, the Director of 'Seven Up!,' Dies at 83". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-04-14.

## External links[edit]

* Paul Almond at IMDb
* Official site
* Paul Almond fonds (R4394) at Library and Archives Canada

## See also[edit]

* List of Bishop's College School alumni

* v
* t
* e

Canadian Screen Award for Best Director

Canadian Film Awards
1966–1978|

* Ron Kelly (1966)
* Allan King and Ron Kelly (1967)
* Don Owen (1968)
* Peter Pearson (1969)
* Paul Almond (1970)
* Claude Jutra (1971)
* Gilles Carle (1972)
* David Acomba (1973)
* No Award (1974)
* Michel Brault (1975)
* Harvey Hart (1976)
* Jean Beaudin (1977)
* Daryl Duke (1978)

Genie Awards
1980–2011|

* Bob Clark (1980)
* Francis Mankiewicz (1981)
* Gilles Carle (1982)
* Phillip Borsos (1983)
* Bob Clark / David Cronenberg (1984)
* Micheline Lanctôt (1985)
* Sandy Wilson (1986)
* Denys Arcand (1987)
* Jean-Claude Lauzon (1988)
* David Cronenberg (1989)
* Denys Arcand (1990)
* Bruce Beresford (1991)
* David Cronenberg (1992)
* François Girard (1993)
* Atom Egoyan (1994)
* Robert Lepage (1995)
* David Cronenberg (1996)
* Atom Egoyan (1997)
* François Girard (1998)
* Jeremy Podeswa (1999)
* Denis Villeneuve (2000)
* Zacharias Kunuk (2001)
* David Cronenberg (2002)
* Denys Arcand (2003)
* Francis Leclerc (2004)
* Jean-Marc Vallée (2005)
* Charles Binamé (2006)
* Sarah Polley (2007)
* Benoît Pilon (2008)
* Denis Villeneuve (2009)
* Denis Villeneuve (2010)
* Philippe Falardeau (2011)

Canadian Screen Awards
2012–present|

* Kim Nguyen (2012)
* Denis Villeneuve (2013)
* Xavier Dolan (2014)
* Lenny Abrahamson (2015)
* Xavier Dolan (2016)
* Aisling Walsh (2017)
* Jasmin Mozaffari (2018)
* Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn (2019)
* Deepa Mehta (2020)
* Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson (2021)
* Clement Virgo (2022)

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST
* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* Israel
* United States

Other|

* SNAC

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