Sir Michael Balcon started in films as a distributor, then producer
of his first film (Women to Women) in the early 1920's, launching Alfred
Hitchcock's career and building up a big annual production programme
of sound films for Gainsborough and Gaumont-British. Head of MGM English
production, 1936-38, then in charge of production at Ealing.
Knighted 1948. A regular and committed spokesman for the British film
industry, especially in the 1940s. After Ealing, produced some films
independently Sammy Going South (1962), and helped form Bryanston Films,
a group of independent film-makers including several ex-Ealing colleagues.
After a frustrating period as Chairman of British Lion (1964-68), became
Chairman of the British Film Institute's Experimental Film Fund, retiring
1972.
