David Puttnam

The Lord Puttnam
Official portrait, 2020
Chancellor of the Open University
In office
3 October 2007 – 12 March 2014
Preceded byThe Baroness Boothroyd
Succeeded byThe Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho
Chancellor of the University of Sunderland
In office
1997–2007
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded bySteve Cram
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
27 October 1997 – 27 October 2021
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born
David Terence Puttnam

(1941-02-25) 25 February 1941 (age 83)
Southgate, Middlesex, England
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Patricia Mary Jones
(m. 1961)
Children2
OccupationFilm producer and educator
Websitewww.davidputtnam.com

David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (/ˈpʌtnəm/; born 25 February 1941) is a British-Irish film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include Chariots of Fire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Midnight Express and Memphis Belle. In 1982, he received the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema, and in 2006 he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Between 1997 and 2021, Puttnam sat on the Labour benches in the House of Lords. In 2019 he was appointed chair to the select committee on democracy and digital technologies. The committee published its findings in its Digital Technology & the Resurrection of Trust report in June 2020.