Alan Parker, Midnight Express director, dies aged 76

Alan Parker, the British director behind a string of hits including Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone, and The Commitments, has died aged 76.

The news was announced by a representative, who said he had died on Friday “after a lengthy illness”, The Guardian reports.

Matthew Modine was among those paying tribute on social media, saying: “Being cast in his epic film, Birdy, transformed my life. Alan was a great artist who’s films will live forever. Godspeed, Sir Alan.” Composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber added: “Very sad to hear the news of Alan Parker’s death. My friend and collaborator on the Evita movie and one of the few directors to truly understand musicals on screen.” Producer David Puttnam, who collaborated with Parker on Bugsy Malone and Midnight Express, wrote on social media: “Alan Parker was my oldest and closest friend and I never ceased to be in awe of his talent. My life, and those of many others who loved, respected and admired him will never be quite the same again.”

Parker, who was born in 1944 in Islington, London, first made his name in the advertising industry, getting a job as a postroom boy after leaving school and eventually establishing himself as a director. Among his best known TV commercials were for Cinzano, featuring Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter, and Parker developed a reputation for astute comic ability. However, along with a clutch of contemporaries such as Adrian Lyne and Ridley and Tony Scott, he had ambitions for the big screen and, after the TV film The Evacuees (scripted by Jack Rosenthal), he made his feature film debut with Bugsy Malone – a project that he would later tell the Guardian was “a ludicrous idea that really ought not to work”.