Sir Christopher John Frayling (born 25 December 1946) is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture. He was awarded a knighthood for Services to Art and Design Education in the 2001 New Year Honours.

Early life and education

Christopher Frayling was born in Hampton, a suburb of London, England, in affluent circumstances. His father, Major Arthur Frederick Frayling, OBE (1910–1993), late of the Royal Army Service Corps, was chairman of the Hudson's Bay fur auction house in London and of the International Fur Trade Federation; his mother, Barbara Kathleen ("Betty") Imhof, the daughter of record and audio equipment store owner Alfred Imhof, was a driver in international car rallies, and won the RAC Rally with her brother, Godfrey Imhof, in 1952. His brother,

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

, was Dean of Chichester Cathedral from 2002-2014. After attending Repton School, Christopher Frayling read history at Churchill College, Cambridge and gained a PhD in the study of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

. Frayling was appointed a Fellow of the college in 2009.

Career

Frayling taught history at the University of Bath and was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Arts) from that University in 2003. In 1979, Frayling was appointed Professor of Cultural History at London's post-graduate art and design school, the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. Frayling was Rector of the Royal College of Art from 1996 to 2009. In 2003, he was awarded the Sir Misha Black Award and was added to the College of Medallists. He was the Chairman of Arts Council England from 2005 until January 2009. He served as Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, and a Trustee of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

. He was a governor of the British Film Institute in the 1980s. In April 2014, he was appointed Chancellor of the Arts University Bournemouth. He has had a wide output as a writer and critic on subjects ranging from vampires to westerns. He has written and presented television series such as ''The Art of Persuasion'' on advertising and ''Strange Landscape'' on the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. He has conducted a series of radio and television interviews with figures from the world of film, including

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

, Deborah Kerr, Ken Adam,

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. List of awards and nominations received by Francis Ford Coppo ...

and

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

. Frayling has written and presented several television series, including ''The Face of Tutankhamun'' and ''Nightmare: Birth of Horror''. He studied

Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

s and specifically director Sergio Leone. Frayling has written a popular biography of Leone, ''Something To Do With Death'' (2000); helped run the Los Angeles-based Gene Autry Museum's exhibit on Leone in 2005; and appeared in numerous documentaries about Leone and his films, particularly the DVD documentaries of '' Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968). He also provided audio commentaries for the special edition DVD releases of '' A Fistful of Dollars'', '' For a Few Dollars More'', '' Once Upon a Time in the West'' and '' The Colossus of Rhodes''. In January 2018, he gave a lecture at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

in the Hogwarts Curriculum Lecture series on "Defence against the Dark Arts". This specialised in the treatment of vampires.

Knighthood

In 2001, Frayling was awarded a knighthood for "Services to Art and Design Education" and chose as his motto "PERGE SCELUS MIHI DIEM PERFICIAS", which can be translated as "Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit". The motto is a reference to a line attributed to

's character Harry Callahan from '' Dirty Harry'' (1971): " Go ahead, punk, make my day".

Arms

Select bibliography

Literature

* ''Napoleon Wrote Fiction'' (1972) * ''The Vampyre'' (1978); Gollanz ** Expanded as ''Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula'' (1991); Faber & Faber ** Expanded as ''Vampyres: Genesis and Resurrection from Count Dracula to Vampirella'' (2016); Thames & Hudson * ''Nightmare: Birth of Horror'' (1996) * ''On Craftsmanship: towards a new Bauhaus'' (2011) * ''The Yellow Peril – Dr Fu Manchu and the Rise of Chinophobia'' (2014) * ''Inside the Bloody Chamber: on Angela Carter, the Gothic and other weird tales'' (2015)

History

* ''The Face of Tutankhamun'' (1992) * ''Strange Landscape: Journey Through the Middle Ages'' (1995)

Film

* ''Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone'' (1981) * ''American Westerners'' (1984) * ''Clint Eastwood'' (1992) * ''Things to Come'' (1995) * ''Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death'' (2000) * ''Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema'' (2005) * ''Sergio Leone: Once Upon a Time in Italy'' (2005) * ''Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design'' (2005) * ''Once Upon a Time in The West Shooting a Masterpiece'' (2019)

Education

* ''The Royal College of Art: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Art and Design'' (1987) * ''Design of the Times: One Hundred Years of the Royal College of Art'' (1996) * ''The Art Pack'' (1998)

List of audio commentaries

*'' Beauty and the Beast'' (1946) *'' The Big Country'' (1958) – only on the US Kino Lorber and German Koch Media Blu-rays. *'' The Colossus of Rhodes'' (1961) *'' Duck, You Sucker!'' (1971) *'' A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) *'' For a Few Dollars More'' (1965) *''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

'' (1931) *'' Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' (1943) *'' The Ghost of Frankenstein'' (1942) *'' The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966) *'' The Innocents'' (1961) – only on the UK BFI and US Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray, along with a featurette he presents. *'' The Magnificent Seven'' (1960) – only on the US

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

Collector's Edition DVD, along with a featurette he presents. *'' Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968), with actress Claudia Cardinale; directors Bernardo Bertolucci, John Carpenter,

Alex Cox Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954) is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with ''Repo Man (film), Repo Man'' (1984) and ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986 ...

and John Milius; and fellow film historian Dr. Sheldon Hall.

Notes

External links

Christopher Frayling
on BBC '' Desert Island Discs'', November 2003.
Interview (02/2008)

Interview (05/2004)

Interview (02/2002)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frayling, Christopher 1946 births Living people British writers British television presenters British educational theorists Knights Bachelor Academics of the University of Bath Rectors of the Royal College of Art Academics of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Place of birth missing (living people) People associated with Arts University Bournemouth Governors of the British Film Institute