Ivory, James (Francis)

(born June 7, 1928, Berkeley, Calif., U.S.) U.S. film director. While directing a documentary on India in the 1960s, he met a local producer, Ismail N. Merchant (b. 1936), beginning cinema's longest-lasting partnership. They made several films written by Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala before their first international success, Shakespeare Wallah (1965). It was followed by a series of well-received adaptations of noted literary works, including The Europeans (1979), The Bostonians (1984), A Room with a View (1986, Academy Award), Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992), and The Remains of the Day (1993). Ivory's films were noted for their attention to period detail and excellent acting.

Ivory, James (1928– ) film director; born in Berkeley, Calif. As a student at the University of Southern California he directed a short subject, Four in the Morning (1953), and was then commissioned by the Asia Society to go to India to make a documentary (1960). There, in partnership with a local producer, Ismail Merchant, he made a series of Indian-based films, climaxing with Shakespeare Wallah (1965), which Ivory also coscripted. Basing their company in the U.S.A. from the early 1970s, the Ivory-Merchant team enjoyed its greatest success with relatively pure adaptations of literary works, such as Henry James's The Europeans (1979) and E. M. Forster's A Room With a View (1987).