John Irvin dead aged 86: Brit director behind BBC’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & huge Hollywood action films has died

LEGENDARY British filmmaker John Irvin has died aged 86.

The director, who helmed BBC miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, as well Hollywood movies like Hamburger Hill, Robin Hood and Raw Deal, passed away “peacefully at home” on August 11, according to his producer Claire Evans.

A three-time BAFTA Award nominee, Irvin was renowned for his versatility – having graduated from London Film School and becoming an adherent to the Free Cinema Movement, he initially directed documentaries.

His breakthrough was Inheritance in 1963, a documentary short about the Algerian War of Independence.

In 1969 he travelled to Vietnam to shoot footage of the ongoing war for newsreel Movietone.

His 1967 short film Mafia No! was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Short Film and in the 1970s he moved to TV, including directing an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times in 1977.

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The same year Irvin made the much-revered BBC miniseries adaptation of John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Sir Alec Guinness, which was nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy.

The following decade the versatile filmmaker began making Hollywood movies, including The Dogs of War (1980), starring Christopher Walken, Ghost Story (1981) with Fred Astaire, and Champions (1984) with John Hurt.

In 1986, Irvin helmed the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Raw Deal and the following year Vietnam War drama Hamburger Hill.

Irvin’s filmography also includes Robin Hood (1991), starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman.

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He continued to direct throughout the 90s and into the 2000s where he focused more on independent cinema, working with the likes of Sir Michael Caine.

He then appeared as himself in the documentary feature film The Writer with No Hands in 2014.

Irvin’s final film was biopic Mandela’s Gun (2016), about Nelson Mandela’s time as a guerrilla fighter.

Irvin was born in 1940 in Wallasey, Cheshire.

After graduating from film school he began documenting the North Yemen war and said MI6 took an interest in his work, though he was never formally enlisted as a spy.

In an interview in 2021, he said: I was far too left wing, for a start, but was anti-apartheid, anti-war, anti-nuclear.

“They were probably well aware of my left-wing activities, so I was certainly not involved in any hanky-panky.”

He is survived by his three children Emilie, Luke and Amy, and two grandchildren.