Born in Islington, London, England. Alan Parker began his career when he and partner Alan Marshall founded a production company to make industrial films and commercials. Between 1969 and 1978, Parker churned out over 500 television commercials, winning every major industry award, while he was cited as an important influence on both fashion and film style of that time. Parker adeptly used lighting, and his sense of drama as a feature film director seems to come as much from his early need to convey a message in 30 seconds as from a sense of pictorial grace. In 1973, Parker wrote and directed a 50-minute film, NO HARD FEELINGS, which the BBC bought and eventually aired several years later. EVACUEES (1975), his first film produced for the BBC, brought attention from the theatrical marketplace, and in 1976 he and producer David Puttnam collaborated on Parker's debut as a director/writer, BUGSY MALONE, a musical spoof of gangster films with an all-children cast. His second feature, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978), based on the true story of an American arrested in Turkey for drug smuggling, earned six Oscar nominations and won for best screenplay adaptation and score. Parker has a knack for turning diverse subjects into uniquely personal statements. After his popular success with the stylish FAME (1980), he turned to a sensitively detailed examination of relationships in SHOOT THE MOON (1982), and in PINK FLOYD -- THE WALL (1982) he expanded the themes of the bestselling rock concept album, employing innovative animation techniques. The quirky BIRDY (1984) and the controversial ANGEL HEART (1987) solidified Parker's position as a highly visual storyteller whose pallette makes use of the soundtrack as well as strong imagery. MISSISSIPPI BURNING (1988), a glossy recreation of a famous civil rights murder case, was praised for its fine performances (particularly by Gene Hackman as a veteran FBI man) but drew fire for its glib reworking of history. THE COMMITMENTS (1991) was an enjoyable, if equally glossy, story about the rise and fall of an Irish soul band. Always fiercely independent, Parker has often lambasted the British film establishment and film critics. No stranger to controversy, he took on the ratings board of the MPAA and personally challenged their "X" rating of ANGEL HEART. Other notable (non-nominated) credits include COME SEE THE PARADISE (1990), THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE (1994), EVITA (1996), ANGELA'S ASHES (1999) and THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (2003). Parker has also authored a compiliation of satirical cartoons, Hares in the Gate (1982), and in 1984 produced A TURNIP HEAD'S GUIDE TO BRITISH CINEMA, a sarcastic documentary which ridiculed the critical mentality, a film that delighted his filmmaking contemporaries as well as his four children, whom he has cited as his chief inspiration. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2002 New Year's Honours List.  Nominated for Directing 1978: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS  Nominated for Achievement in Directing 1988: MISSISSIPPI BURNING 2 nominations