David Tomblin,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(18 October 1930 – 20 July 2005) was a film and television

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

assistant director The role of an assistant director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have t ...

, and director. As a producer, he was best known for ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...

'' TV series. As a first assistant director, he worked on a number of high-profile films, including the

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

and

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' The ...

series and the 1978 '' Superman'', and with commercially and critically successful directors including

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Televisio ...

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spi ...

and

Sydney Pollack Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films. For his film '' Out ...

. As a director, he was best known for work on

Gerry Anderson Gerald Alexander Anderson (; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He remains famous for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s produ ...

's productions, including '' Space: 1999''.

Early life and career

Tomblin was born in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. He began working in film as a runner at the age of 14.Pirani, Adam "David Tomblin A.D. to Indy Jones", ''Starlog #86'' pp.44-46,58, September 1984. He worked on numerous productions, and (with an interruption for

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

in the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

), became a First Assistant Director in 1954. As well as films, he worked on a number of British-made TV series, including ''

William Tell William Tell (german: Wilhelm Tell, ; french: Guillaume Tell; it, Guglielmo Tell; rm, Guglielm Tell) is a folk hero of Switzerland. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albr ...

'', '' One Step Beyond'', ''

The Count of Monte Cristo ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (french: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (''père'') completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with '' The Three Musketeers''. L ...

'', ''

The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel'' is a British television series based on the 1905 adventure novel of the same name by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The series was created by writer Michael Hogan and produced by the Towers of London for ...

'', ''

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents ''Douglas Fairbanks Presents'' is a 1953-1956 syndicated half-hour dramatic anthology series. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was the host, and he sometimes starred in episodes. It was also known as ''Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents''. A total of 117 episod ...

'' and ''

The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devo ...

''.

McGoohan and Anderson

After working with

Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and Engla ...

on ''

Danger Man ''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again b ...

'', McGoohan and Tomblin decided to set up a company to make their own series, ''

'', with story editor George Markstein. Tomblin was producer of the series, and wrote and directed several episodes. Tomblin worked as a director on Gerry Anderson's live-action productions '' UFO'', ''

The Protectors ''The Protectors'' is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series to exclusively use live actors as opposed to marionettes (following '' UFO''), and his second to be firmly set in ...

'' and '' Space: 1999''.

Lucasfilm, ''Superman'' and ''Gandhi''

Having worked on ''

The Return of a Man Called Horse ''The Return of a Man Called Horse'' is a 1976 Western film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Jack DeWitt. It is a sequel to the 1970 film '' A Man Called Horse'', in turn based on Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story of the same name, w ...

'', directed by

Irvin Kershner Irvin Kershner (born Isadore Kershner; April 29, 1923November 27, 2010) was an American film director, actor, and producer of film and television. He gained notice early in his career as a filmmaker for directing quirky, independent drama films ...

, when the production unit filmed for a few days in England, Tomblin was invited by Kershner to be first assistant director on ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a sto ...

''. He subsequently worked as first assistant director for

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

on ''

Return of the Jedi ''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who w ...

'' and the first three

films ''

Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, R ...

'', ''

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second installment in the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise, and a prequel to the 1981 film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'', f ...

'' and ''

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' is a 1989 American action film, action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jones, ''Indiana ...

''. During production of ''Return of the Jedi'', Tomblin directed ''

Return of the Ewok ''Return of the Ewok'' is an unreleased 1982 mockumentary short, written, produced and directed by David Tomblin, starring Warwick Davis as himself in a fictionalized account of how he got the role of Wicket W. Warrick in ''Return of the Jedi''.' ...

'', a short, never-finished film about

Warwick Davis Warwick Ashley Davis (born 3 February 1970) is an English actor. He played the title character in ''Willow'' (1988) and the ''Leprechaun'' film series (1993–2003), several characters in the ''Star Wars'' film series (1983–2019), most nota ...

who played the Ewok Wicket W. Warrick. Tomblin later worked with Kershner again when Kershner directed 1983's ''

Never Say Never Again ''Never Say Never Again'' is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel '' Thunderball'' by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and F ...

'', and with Spielberg on ''

Empire of the Sun ''Empire of the Sun'' is a 1984 novel by English writer J. G. Ballard; it was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story "The Dead Time" (published in the anthology '' ...

''. Tomblin often maintained multi-film working relationships with directors. He worked with

Richard Donner Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American filmmaker whose notable works included some of the most financially-successful films during the New Hollywood era. According to film historian ...

on '' The Omen'', '' Superman'' and those parts of ''

Superman II ''Superman II'' is a 1980 superhero film directed by Richard Lester and written by Mario Puzo and David and Leslie Newman from a story by Puzo based on the DC Comics character Superman. It is the second installment in the ''Superman'' film seri ...

'' directed by Donner. With Richard Attenborough, Tomblin worked on Attenborough's major multinational productions '' A Bridge Too Far'', ''

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

'', '' Cry Freedom'' and '' Chaplin''. For ''Gandhi'', Tomblin supervised the reconstruction of Gandhi's funeral in Delhi, to which the general public were invited, involving the direction of 250,000 extras. With

, Tomblin worked on ''

Out of Africa ''Out of Africa'' is a memoir by the Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa. The book is a lyrical meditation on ...

'' and ''

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

''.

Awards

Tomblin was awarded

in the

1994 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday. Publication dates vary from year to year. Most are published in supplements to the ''London Gazette'' and many are formally conferred by the monarch (or ...

. He was presented with BAFTA's Michael Balcon Award (now known as The Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award) in 2003. With Richard Attenborough, he was named as a winner of the 1982 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for ''

''.

Personal life

Tomblin had four children, including

Lisa Tomblin Lisa Tomblin is a film make-up department chief hairdresser. On January 24, 2012, she was nominated for an Academy Award for the movie ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'' is ...

, a film make-up department chief hairdresser, and Jane Tomblin, a production designer.

Filmography

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

lists around 200 unique credits for Tomblin, but in 1982 he himself estimated he had already worked on around 500 films. Tomblin told an interviewer for a programme broadcast in 1984: "I only know that because I've just worked on a George Lucas film called ''Return Of The Jedi'', and to get permission to work in the States I had to write down every film I'd been on. I got to 478 and then decided that was probably enough to convince them that I had a reasonable amount of experience."Chris Rodley
"An interview with Jack Shampan and David Tomblin"
, ''The Prisoner TV series starring Patrick McGoohan - home page''. Retrieved 7 September 2012.

Director

# ''

'' (1982) (V) # '' Space: 1999'' (4 episodes, 1975-1976) # ''

'' (1 episode, 1974) # '' UFO'' (2 episodes, 1970-1971) # '' Baleia! Baleia!'' (1971) # ''

'' (2 episodes, 1967-1968)

Producer

# ''

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is a 1988 adventure fantasy film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, and starring John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Robin Williams and Uma Thurman. An internat ...

'' (1988) (line producer) # ''

'' (1982) (V) (producer) # ''

'' (producer)

Assistant director

Ever After ''Ever After'' (known in promotional material as ''Ever After: A Cinderella Story'') is a 1998 American romantic period drama film inspired by the Charles Perrault fairy tale, "Cinderella". It is directed by Andy Tennant and stars Drew Barrymor ...

(1998) (second unit director) # The Man in the Iron Mask (1998/I) (first assistant director) # Hearst Castle: Building the Dream (1996) (first assistant director) # Braveheart (1995) (first assistant director) #

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' (french: Les Trois Mousquetaires, links=no, ) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight f ...

(1993) (first assistant director) # Chaplin (1992) (first assistant director) #

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

(1990/I) (first assistant director) #

(1989) (first assistant director: UK) #

(1987) (assistant director) # Cry Freedom (1987) (first assistant director) #

(1985) (first assistant director) # King David (1985) (assistant director) (second unit director) #

(1984) (assistant director: UK) #

(1983) (first assistant director) #

(1983) (first assistant director) (second unit director) #

(1982) (first assistant director) #

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

(1982) (TV) (assistant director) #

(1981) (first assistant director) #

(1980) (second unit director) #

(1980) (first assistant director) #

The Prisoner of Zenda ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in or ...

(1979) (second unit director) # Zulu Dawn (1979) (second unit director) # Superman (1978) (assistant director) (second unit director) # A Bridge Too Far (1977) (first assistant director) # The Omen (1976) (assistant director) #

Barry Lyndon ''Barry Lyndon'' is a 1975 Period film, period drama film written, directed, and produced by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'' by William Makepeace Thackeray. Starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Ma ...

(1975) (assistant director) # The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) (assistant director) # Shaft in Africa (1973) (second unit director) # A Warm December (1973) (first assistant director) # ''

'' (assistant director) (10 episodes, 1964-1965) (second unit director) (6 episodes, 1966) # The Liquidator (1965) (assistant director) # The Alphabet Murders (1965) (assistant director) # Murder Ahoy (1964) (assistant director) # Murder Most Foul (1964) (assistant director) # Night Must Fall (1964) (assistant director) # The Haunting (1963/I) (assistant director) #

I Thank a Fool ''I Thank a Fool'' is a 1962 British Metrocolor crime film made by Eaton (De Grunwald Productions) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in CinemaScope. It was directed by Robert Stevens and produced by Anatole de Grunwald from a screenplay by Karl Tunbe ...

(1962) (assistant director) (as Dave Tomblin) # Reach for Glory (1962) (assistant director) # We Joined the Navy (1962) (assistant director) # '' Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond'' (assistant director) (13 episodes, 1961) # ''

'' (assistant director) (39 episodes, 1960-1961) # Taste of Fear (1961) (assistant director) # ''

Invisible Man ''Invisible Man'' is a novel by Ralph Ellison, published by Random House in 1952. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues faced by African Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship b ...

'' (assistant director) (21 episodes, 1959) # ''

'' (assistant director) (21 episodes, 1958-1959) # '' The New Adventures of Charlie Chan'' (assistant director) (4 episodes, 1957-1958) # '' Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans'' (assistant director) (8 episodes, 1957) # ''

'' (assistant director) (1 episode, 1956) # The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) (third assistant director) (uncredited) # My Brother Jonathan (1948) (third assistant director) (uncredited)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomblin, David 1930 births 2005 deaths BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award British film directors British television directors Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Borehamwood