Stephen Frears

Sir Stephen Arthur Frears was born in Leicester on 20 June 1941 and read law at Trinity College, Cambridge. He did not learn that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late twenties — the fact was kept from him — and he is listed here on that descent. He directs real lives and the English class system with the same unsentimental eye: My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, The Queen, Philomena and the miniseries A Very English Scandal. He has won three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director twice, for The Grifters in 1990 and The Queen in 2006. In 2008 The Daily Telegraph named him among the hundred most influential people in British culture.