David Korda, the British film producer and financier who came from a family of prominent directors including his father, Zoltan Korda, has died. He was 87 years old.
Korda’s death was revealed on November 16 by film historian Charles Drazin via social media. Korda died on September 18 at Cromwell Hospital in London after a battle with cancer, according to Drazen, who wrote a 2011 biography of Korda’s uncle, producer and director Alexander Korda. News of David Korda’s death was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Korda’s father was the director of films such as “The Four Feathers” in 1939 and “Cry, the Beloved Country” in 1951. His mother was actress Joan Gardner, known for her roles in films such as “The Scarlett Pimmernel” in 1934 and “Dark Journey” in 1937. Alexander Korda of London Films, owner of British Lion Films, which produced the feature films The Private Life of Henry VIII in 1933 and The Third Man in 1949. His uncle Vincent Korda was an Academy Award-winning art director.
Over the course of a career spanning more than six decades, David Korda has produced films such as 1987’s “Hamburger Hill” and 1999’s “After the Rain” starring Paul Bettany. As a film financier, he worked with director Francis Ford Coppola on the productions of “The Outsiders” and “Rumble.” Fish in 1983. He was also instrumental in arranging financing for Terry Gilliam’s famous over-budget 1988 production of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
Korda was born in London, and at the age of three he moved with his parents to Beverly Hills. His first memory of Los Angeles was of his Uncle Alex showing up in a big limousine to give him a tour of the city, then sending him home with a bag of silver dollars. Other early memories include playing with props from “The Thief of Bagdad” and “The Jungle Book.” Drazin wrote in a recent tribute to David Korda.
Korda attended the Lycée in South Kensington before attending the International School of Geneva, Pomona College and Oxford. After his studies, Korda established a theater company in collaboration with Polish actor and director Vladek Szpil in 1960. The company was financed with financial support from his father and continues to highlight performances by actors such as Eileen Atkins, Prunella Scales and Jeremy Brett. .
After his father died the following year, Korda worked as an assistant on Peter Brook’s 1963 film “Lord of the Flies.” For producer Charles Schneier, he assembled footage for use in films such as “The Siege of the Saxons,” “Eastern Sudan” and “Land Raiders.” . “I always thought my father had turned over in his grave,” Korda said of his incorporation of scenes from “The Four Feathers.”
Later in his career, Korda worked as a unit manager for the 1967 Paramount musical “Half a Sixpence,” and later as a producer on “The Ruling Class” and “Man Friday.” In the following decade, he worked on independently financed films as a production supervisor and served as an associate producer on “Sunburn” and “Annie and Little Britches” for the British company Hemdale.
In 1980, he joined Film Finances as Executive Production Manager in London. The company provided bonds for “The Terminator,” “Romancing the Stone” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” during his tenure. Korda left Film Finances in 1985 to become head of production at the revived RKO.
“David was sober and uncomplaining, and outwardly humble to the end. The only visible signs of any pride were the four movie posters that adorned his office: behind his desk were two Francis Ford Coppola pictures, “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish,” the successful completion of which helped establish film finance as a major industry. Power in Hollywood, while on the opposite wall was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a production that would have risked the company’s very existence if David had not been able to contain it.
Korda left behind a son named Nick and a daughter named Lerin.