Karel Reisz, director of Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, the major box-office success of British New Wave cinema in the early 60s, has died in London aged 76.

The Czech-born filmmaker had been ill for six months with a blood disorder. He leaves a wife, Betsy Blair, and three sons.

Reisz became one of the leading British directors of the 60s after he came to England as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. After winning the BAFTA for best film in 1961 for Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, he went on to direct films including Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment and Isadora.

Under his direction, Meryl Streep was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress in 1982 for The French Lieutenant's Woman.

"I keep thinking of the 12-year-old boy who arrived here as a refugee and made a life for himself," Blair said. "His parents died in Auschwitz. He was a wonderful man."