When he was born in Philadelphia on Jan. 19, 1932, his mother named him
\nRichard. Later, as a TV director in London, he was given the nickname Dick,
\nwhich he tolerated until the mid-\u201970s, when he insisted on returning to his
\nformal given name. But it doesn\u2019t really matter which first name he
\nuses \u2014 the millions of moviegoers who have enjoyed the work of Richard Lester
\nstill probably wouldn\u2019t know him from Tipper Gore. That\u2019s the price you pay
\nwhen your most enduring film starred four guys whose first names were John,
\nPaul, George and Ringo.<\/p>\n
To suggest that Richard Lester is an anonymous figure in film history would
\nbe far from correct \u2014 his signature manic style still has his name attached
\n(producers of the recent \u201cShooting Fish\u201d described their movie as \u201cson of
\nRichard Lester\u201d). Film buffs pay tribute to his work \u2014 Lester won the Palm
\nd\u2019Or at Cannes for a movie that lacked a single Beatle, and he was the
\nsubject of a 1990 tribute at the Sundance Festival. But it is one Lester
\nfilm in particular that has grown in stature as the decades have passed,
\nand many who watched \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night,\u201d upon its release in 1964 or in the
\nyears since came away with the innocent conviction that the movie sprang
\nwhole from the irrepressible personalities of its four Liverpool stars.
\nSome had other opinions. \u201cLet\u2019s face it,\u201d said George Harrison, \u201cwe just
\nmutter a few words now and then and Dick Lester tells us how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Lester was a precocious child who could spell 250 words by the age
\nof 2 and entered the University of Pennsylvania at 15. There
\nhe began to see films, many of them British productions from Ealing
\nStudios, at a nearby theater. His first show-biz gigs were musical \u2014 playing
\npiano in a bar and singing backup for Ginny Stevens on local CBS station
\nWCAU. After he graduated in 1951, Lester joined WCAU as a stagehand and worked
\nhis way up to director in the days of live TV. Two years later he left for
\nEurope, earning money as a roving correspondent. Eventually, he landed in
\nLondon. Commercial television was just starting up in the United Kingdom, and Lester\u2019s
\nCBS experience got him steady work at ARTV (where he shared an office with
\nDeirdre Smith, his future wife). A disastrous little variety
\nprogram called \u201cThe Dick Lester Show\u201d managed to catch at least one viewer\u2019s
\nattention \u2014 Lester received a phone call the next day. \u201cI watched your
\nprogram last night,\u201d Peter Sellers told him, \u201cand it was either one of the
\nworst shows I\u2019ve ever seen, or you are on to something.\u201d
\nadvertisement<\/p>\n
Over lunch, Sellers explained that he was contemplating a TV version of the
\nclassic BBC radio program \u201cThe Goon Show,\u201d which featured Sellers and Spike
\nMilligan, among others. The eventual result, \u201cIdiot Weekly,\u201d was first aired
\nin 1956 with Lester directing, and was an immediate hit. Other series with
\nthe same team followed \u2014 \u201cA Show Called Fred,\u201d \u201cSon of Fred\u201d \u2014 shows that are not
\nonly beloved in their own right but often cited as blueprints for the Monty
\nPython routines to come. In 1959 Lester directed Sellers and Milligan in an
\n11-minute short called \u201cThe Running, Jumping, and Standing Still Film,\u201d which
\nearned much acclaim and an Academy Award nomination.<\/p>\n
Lester\u2019s first movie was a 1962 cheapie about the resurgent traditional
\njazz movement, \u201cIt\u2019s Trad, Dad\u201d (released in the United States as \u201cRing-a-Ding Rhythm\u201d).
\nWith the trad-jazz boomlet fading even as the movie was nearing completion,
\nLester improvised by hiring Chubby Checker to do a twist number near the
\nend. Next came \u201cMouse on the Moon,\u201d a sequel to the Sellers hit \u201cThe Mouse
\nThat Roared\u201d (minus Sellers). While these epics may not have secured
\nLester\u2019s place in the film pantheon, they would prove significant in
\nunforeseen ways. It was through \u201cMouse on the Moon\u201d that Lester met producer Walter
\nShenson. And it was one of the musicians featured in \u201cIt\u2019s Trad, Dad\u201d who
\nplayed Lester some records he\u2019d bought after hearing a group in Liverpool\u2019s
\nCavern Club.<\/p>\n
When Shenson got the job of producing the first Beatles movie, Lester was
\neager to direct. He hired writer Alun Owen, who had worked on \u201cThe Dick
\nLester Show\u201d but survived the experience to achieve some success. As for the
\nBeatles, they were familiar with both Lester (through his \u201cGoon\u201d work) and
\nOwen, and liked what they\u2019d seen. The soon-to-be-Fabs were wary about their
\nfirst cinematic project (one early proposal, \u201cThe Yellow Teddy Bears,\u201d came
\nfrom a director who stipulated that he\u2019d write all the songs) and were
\nanxious to avoid the standard rock \u2018n\u2019 roll Elvis flick. Owen proposed \u201can
\nexaggerated day in the life of the Beatles,\u201d and produced a script that,
\naccording to John Lennon, was not really to the group\u2019s liking: \u201cWe were a bit
\ninfuriated by the glibness of it and the shittyness of the dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conceived before the Ed Sullivan shows of February 1964, the movie was
\nfilmed shortly after that storm broke. Certain crowd scenes in the movie
\nwere the result of actual security lapses, and the first day\u2019s rushes were
\ndestroyed when a Beatle-haired assistant carrying the film cans was
\nmistaken for the real thing and attacked by a teenage mob.<\/p>\n
According to Lester, only the train sequence survived intact from Owen\u2019s
\noriginal script, and many Beatles quips were improvised (most famously the
\nfilm\u2019s title, which was a Ringo malapropism). Imbued though it was with the
\n(somewhat sanitized) personalities of its stars, \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d was
\nRichard Lester\u2019s film, drawing on the visual wit and slightly bizarre
\nsensibility of his \u201cGoon Show\u201d projects. Decades later he received an award
\nfrom MTV for basically inventing the music video, particularly in the
\nbaggage car performance of \u201cI Should Have Known Better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lester\u2019s next film was 1965\u2032s \u201cThe Knack,\u201d a hip (and now oh-so-dated) sexual
\ncomedy that enthralled the Cannes jury and took home the Palm d\u2019Or. Beatles
\nmovie No. 2 \u2014 \u201cHelp!\u201d \u2014 followed the same year. This time the story \u2014 such
\nas it was \u2014 revolved around Ringo\u2019s possession of a sacred ring being sought
\nby high priests. (Reflecting a less hypersensitive era, an early story
\nproposal had Ringo planning to commit suicide.) If history has not treated
\n\u201cHelp!\u201d as kindly as it has \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night,\u201d well, neither did contemporary
\ncritics. Whereas Andrew Sarris memorably described the first Beatles movie
\nin the Village Voice as \u201cthe \u2018Citizen Kane\u2019 of juke box musicals,\u201d \u201cHelp!\u201d
\nreceived only lukewarm reviews. By all accounts it was at least fun to do.
\nThe Beatles spent much of the shoot enjoying the exotic locales in a
\ndrug-induced fog.<\/p>\n
For his part, Lester had a front-row seat to observe the unfolding
\nspectacle of unprecedented stardom. In Andrew Yule\u2019s biography \u201cThe Man Who
\nFramed the Beatles,\u201d Lester recalled watching two drop-dead beauties on a
\nParadise Island location shoot trying to coax Paul into partaking of both
\nthemselves and heroin. It was, Lester thought, as evil a moment as he has
\never seen. (The future composer of \u201cSilly Love Songs\u201d naturally declined the
\noffer.)<\/p>\n
Next up for Lester was a very different kind of musical, an adaptation of
\nthe Broadway hit \u201cA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.\u201d Nicholas
\nRoeg was his cinematographer, but the movie is not considered a shining
\ncareer moment for either man. Lester would in fact endure a series of flops
\nin the 1960s, although his 1968 film \u201cPetulia\u201d is beloved by some film buffs,
\nand 1967\u2032s \u201cHow I Won the War,\u201d which co-starred Lennon as Private
\nGripweed, was immortalized in the Beatles epic \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d: \u201cI saw a
\nfilm today, oh boy\/The English army had just won the war\/A crowd of
\npeople turned away \u2026\u201d In this case, Lennon\u2019s infamously obscure lyrics are
\npure documentary \u2014 Lester\u2019s anti-war epic was box office poison.<\/p>\n
After the critically panned \u201cThe Bed Sitting Room\u201d in 1969, Lester worked for
\na time in Italy making TV commercials. His return to the screen came in
\n1974 courtesy of Alexander Salkind and his son Ilya, who hired Lester for a
\nnew version of \u201cThe Three Musketeers\u201d starring Michael York, Oliver Reed,
\nRichard Chamberlain and Raquel Welch. After nine years Lester needed a hit,
\nand this project rewarded him with two. The original plan for a
\nthree-and-a-half hour epic gave way to a double feature \u2014 \u201cThe Four
\nMusketeers,\u201d starring Faye Dunaway, was released in 1975. Trouble was,
\nnobody told the cast. Having signed contracts for only one movie, the
\nactors later sued the Salkinds. Lester himself was denied his promised
\nprofit points. Legal difficulties followed the Salkinds like lint follows
\nvelour \u2014 Alexander had to flee Europe in 1978 to avoid jail. Richard Donner,
\ndirector of the Salkinds\u2019 1978 blockbuster \u201cSuperman,\u201d said of them: \u201cThe
\nsickness of these people is that they think everybody\u2019s out to kill them.
\nEventually I guess everybody is.\u201d<\/p>\n
When \u201cSuperman\u201d ran into early difficulties, Lester agreed to sign on as
\nproducer, if only to force the Salkinds to pony up his \u201cMusketeers\u201d money.
\nLester\u2019s \u201970s oeuvre had been erratic \u2014 relatively well-received work like
\n\u201cJuggernaut\u201d and the Sean Connery-Audrey Hepburn duet \u201cRobin and Marian\u201d
\ncontrasted with offerings like \u201cThe Ritz\u201d and \u201cCuba.\u201d The latter was a
\ndisaster-plagued production that bombed so thoroughly, star Connery
\nreportedly broke off all ties with the director. Lester may also have
\nlocked up the dubious distinction of inaugurating the term \u201cprequel\u201d in
\n1979 when he directed \u201cButch and Sundance: The Early Days.\u201d While not exactly
\na two-gun smash, the movie at least lacked any big-eared sidekicks named
\nGun-Gun.<\/p>\n
Lester took over the direction of the \u201cSuperman\u201d series after Donner parted
\ncompany with the Salkinds in characteristically rancorous fashion. Older
\nand wiser, Lester signed on to \u201cSuperman II\u201d for what was apparently a record
\nfee at the time. The resulting live-action cartoon was generally
\nacknowledged to be a lot more fun than the original. Lester was still at
\nthe helm for the less successful third installment, and happily bowed out
\nbefore \u201cSuperman IV\u201d scraped the critical and box office bottom.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Lester\u2019s own remaining films would not cover him with glory,
\neither. After struggling with Dino De Laurentiis to come up with a mutually
\nagreeable project (De Laurentiis rejected Lester\u2019s plan to do \u201cA Fish Called
\nWanda\u201d and counterproposed, among others, \u201cTotal Recall,\u201d which De Laurentiis
\ndescribed as \u201ca psychological thriller with very few special effects, not
\nexpensive to do\u201d), Lester finally did the forgettable \u201cFinders Keepers.\u201d In
\n1989 he followed up with a third Dumas-themed epic, \u201cThe Return of the
\nMusketeers.\u201d Another trouble-plagued shoot, this one was marred by the death
\nof longtime Lester pal Roy Kinnear, who died after a fall from a horse.
\nLester\u2019s next and quite possibly final film was another return to past
\nglories \u2014 a Paul McCartney tour chronicle called \u201cGet Back,\u201d released in 1990.<\/p>\n
Now 67, Lester appears contentedly retired with wife Deirdre in their
\nPetersham, England, home. Despite numerous popular successes, Lester will
\nalways be linked to a particular time and place, a small but integral part
\nof a cultural phenomenon that swept the globe. No one will ever call it
\nLestermania, but he never complained \u2014 in the end, Richard Lester always knew
\nwho validated his ticket to ride.