This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life
Film poster by Renato Fratini
Directed byLindsay Anderson
Screenplay byDavid Storey
Based onThis Sporting Life
by David Storey
Produced byKarel Reisz
StarringRichard Harris
Rachel Roberts
Alan Badel
William Hartnell
CinematographyDenys Coop
Edited byPeter Taylor
Music byRoberto Gerhard
Production
company
Distributed byRank Organisation
Release dates
  • 7 February 1963 (1963-02-07) (London, West End)
Running time
134 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£230,000[1] or £197,381[2]

This Sporting Life is a 1963 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson. Based on the 1960 novel of the same name by David Storey, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award, it recounts the story of a rugby league footballer in Wakefield, a mining city in Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life. Storey, a former professional rugby league footballer, also wrote the screenplay.

The film stars Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, William Hartnell, and Alan Badel. It was Harris's first starring role, and won him the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.[3] He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. For her work in the film, Roberts won her second BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 7 February 1963.[4]

  1. ^ Alexander Walker, Hollywood, England, Stein and Day, 1974 p176
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference money was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Festival de Cannes: This Sporting Life". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
  4. ^ The Times, 7 February 1963, Page 2