Partner Ismail Merchant
Queer Places:
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90007, Stati Uniti
University of Oregon, 1585 E 13th Ave, Eugene, OR 97403, Stati Uniti
James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director,
producer, and screenwriter. For many years he worked extensively with
Indian-born film producer
Ismail Merchant,
his domestic as well as professional partner, and with screenwriter Ruth
Prawer Jhabvala. All three were principals in Merchant Ivory Productions,
whose films have won six Academy Awards; Ivory himself has been nominated for
four Oscars, winning one.
For his work on Call Me by Your Name (2017), which he wrote and produced, Ivory won awards for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Academy Awards, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Writers Guild of America, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the Scripter Awards, among others. Upon winning the Oscar and BAFTA at the age of 89, Ivory became the oldest-ever winner in any category for both awards.[1][2]
Ivory was born in Berkeley, California, the son of Hallie Millicent (née de Loney) and Edward Patrick Ivory, a sawmill operator.[3] He grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon.[4]
He attended the University of Oregon, from which he received a degree in fine arts in 1951. Ivory is a recipient of the Lawrence Medal, UO's College of Design’s highest honor for its graduates. His papers are held by UO Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives.[5] He then attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he directed the short film Four in the Morning (1953). He wrote, photographed, and produced Venice: Theme and Variations, a half-hour documentary submitted as his thesis film for his master's degree in cinema.[6] The film was named by The New York Times in 1957 as one of the ten best non-theatrical films of the year. He graduated from USC in 1957.[7]
Ivory met producer Ismail Merchant at a screening of Ivory's documentary The Sword and the Flute in New York City in 1959. In May 1961, Merchant and Ivory formed the film production company Merchant Ivory Productions. Merchant and Ivory were long-term life partners.[8][9] Their professional and romantic partnership lasted 44 years, from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005.[8]
TTheir partnership has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema history. Until Merchant's death in 2005, they produced 40 films, including a number of films that received Academy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards among many others. Ivory directed 17 theatrical films for Merchant Ivory, and novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was the screenwriter for 22 of their productions in addition to another film produced by Merchant Ivory after Merchant's death.
Of this collaboration, Ismail Merchant once commented: "It is a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory ... I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew, and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!"[10]
My published books:
