Sidney J. Furie

Sidney J. Furie

Sidney Joseph Furie (born February 28, 1933) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his extensive work in both British and American cinema between the 1960s and early 1980s. Like his contemporaries Norman Jewison and Ted Kotcheff, he was one of earliest Canadian directors to achieve mainstream critical and financial success outside their native country at a time when its film industry was virtually nonexistent. He won a BAFTA Film Award and was nominated for a Palme d'Or for his work on the acclaimed spy thriller The Ipcress File starring Michael Caine. He is the last surviving of the three great Sidney directors of the later 20th Century: Sidney Lumet(d.2011), Sydney Pollack(d.2008) and Sidney Furie. He is considered by some an auteur director, elevating otherwise unremarkable genre films through strong, creative visuals, and atmospheric direction. His 1981 horror film The Entity was declared by director Martin Scorsese as one of the scariest movies of all time, and his Vietnam War film The Boys in Company C was a major influence on Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. He is also the co-creator of the Iron Eagle action film franchise, and directed three of its four entries.

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