“One of the unsung heroes of British and European cinema”: tributes paid to producer Timothy Burrill who has died aged 95

Tributes have been paid to veteran British producer Timothy Burrill, who died on July 23 aged 95.

Burrill’s career in the industry encompassed everything from superhero movies – he was production supervisor on the 1978 Superman starring Christopher Reeve – to numerous collaborations with Roman Polanski on films such as The Pianist, Tess and The Ghost.

An affable and patrician figure, Burrill began his career in the UK film industry as an assistant director and production manager, working on films including 1960’s On The Fiddle, one of Sean Connery’s early starring roles, and Karel Reisz’s 1964 feature Night Must Fall.

He helped to finance Oscar winner Chariots Of Fire during his time at production company Allied Stars and served as a coproducer or executive producer on several French-UK coproductions, working with such notable figures as Alain Sarde and Claude Berri and on projects ranging from Polanski’s Tess (1979) to Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Lover (1992) and François Ozon’s Swimming Pool (2003).

Burrill was chair of Bafta between 1981 and 1983, having previously served as vice-chairman for film, and was also head of production at Pathé Pictures UK in 1997 when French major Pathé won one of the three UK government lottery franchises to produce UK films.

“Tim Burrill was unquestionably one of the unsung heroes of both British and European cinema of the 1970s and ’80s,” commented David Puttnam, producer of Chariots Of Fire. “He was a pioneer of Anglo-French coproduction and he helped steer important policy changes through successive governments but with a quiet self-effacing manner that was as effective as it was unusual.

“As production head of Allied Stars in 1980, he played a huge role in the financing of Chariots Of Fire. For that alone I will always remain massively in his debt. Tim was a total gentleman in every respect but in addition a greatly undervalued British filmmaker.”

Other former collaborators also shared tributes.

“He was the consummate gentleman producer,” said Andrea Calderwood of Potboiler Productions, who worked with Burrill at Pathé in the late 1990s and described him as “a trailblazer” in promoting the UK as a European coproduction partner.

“He was very generous to me when I came in. He was an enabler of the talent he worked with and very skilled at bringing people together,” Calderwood continued. “His internationalist outlook was striking. He was passionate about Britain’s ability to make international films and he would always be supportive of that.”

Simon Perry, the former British Screen CEO and producer of White Mischief and 1984, knew Burrill for many years. “He realised there was a business to be had in coproducing films from French producers who wanted to make films in English,” Perry recalled. “He was enormously likeable and very popular – a great collaborator and a very good production manager and line producer.”

Laurent Bouzereau, who directed the 2011 documentary Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, which Burrill executive produced, said: “Meeting Timothy Burrill throughout my career as a documentary filmmaker was truly an honour. He was first and foremost a gentleman – and he made everything happen without ever complaining about how tough it may have been. He approached everything and everyone with a smile, humour and great respect. He was also a great raconteur of fascinating stories about the films he worked on. He was one of a kind.”