John Irvin Dies: Director Of ‘Hamburger Hill’ & TV Drama ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ Was 86 — SkimNews
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Irvin's 1979 BBC "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" predates the celebrated 2011 film by three decades, illustrating how prestige television adaptations once served as early test runs for literary source material that cinema later revisited at scale.
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- John Irvin died peacefully on August 11 at age 86 at the UK home of his sister-in-law, surrounded by family, his producers confirmed.
- Irvin directed the BAFTA-winning BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) starring Alec Guinness, Ian Richardson and Patrick Stewart, and later worked in Hollywood on Hamburger Hill (1987) and Raw Deal (1986) with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Irvin won his first BAFTA in the 1960s for the documentary short Inheritance, narrated by Richard Burton, with the award presented by Audrey Hepburn; he went on to receive BAFTA nominations across three decades.
- Irvin made more than 30 features, ranging from a Harold Pinter-scripted Turtle Diary (1985) with Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson to the horror hit Ghost Story (1981) starring Fred Astaire, which grossed $24 million.
- Irvin gave Anthony Hopkins his first TV role in The Peasants Revolt (1969) and later directed early-career appearances by Don Cheadle, Dylan McDermott and Liam Neeson in films including Hamburger Hill and Next of Kin (1989).
- At the time of his death, Irvin was completing a final edit of Mandela's Gun — a film six years in the making and shot in seven countries — and directing a documentary on South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim.
- Irvin is survived by his three children Emilie, Luke and Amy and two grandchildren; his wife Sophie (née Litchfield), whom he married in 1970, died of cancer in 1991.
Why it matters: Irvin's death closes out a half-century career that bridged British TV drama and Hollywood genre films, giving early breaks to actors from Anthony Hopkins to Don Cheadle. His unfinished *Mandela's Gun* and documentary on Abdullah Ibrahim remain as posthumous projects still in post-production.
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