James ClavellFilmography

Born:: October 10, 1924 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation:: Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter, Book Author
Birth name:: Charles Edmund DuMaresq de Clavelle
Biography:: The son of British Royal Navy Captain Sir Richard Clavell, James Clavell was commissioned into the British Royal Artillery at the outbreak of World War II, then spent most of the war in a Japanese POW camp. After the cessation of hostilities, Clavell overcame his bitterness by cultivating a...Read More

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James Clavell's Noble House

Crew: Book Author, Executive Producer

Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Deborah Raffin, Tia Carrere

1988
Tai-Pan

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Bryan Brown, Joan Chen, John Stanton, Tim Guinee, Bill Leadbitter

Synopsis: Daryl Duke directed this epic adventure, based on James Clavell's best-selling novel, concerning the battle for control of the China trade in early 19th-century Hong Kong. The film takes place in 1842 on the China Coast, where the Chinese object to the British imperialist policy of buying opium Read More

11/7/86
The Children's Story

Crew: Book Author

Synopsis: This adaptation of the book by James Clavell focuses on the power of suggestion on impressionable young minds. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

1982
Shogun

Crew: Book Author, Executive Producer

Actors: Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada, Frankie Sakai, Alan Badel

Synopsis: Based on the epic novel by James Clavell, Shogun originated as an epic five-part television miniseries, filmed on location in Japan. Richard Chamberlain stars as John Blackthorne, a 17th century British sea pilot in charge of a Dutch vessel. Shipwrecked off the coast of Japan, Blackthorne is in Read More

1980
The Last Valley

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Caine, Omar Sharif, Florinda Bolkan, Nigel Davenport, Per Oscarsson

Synopsis: Noted novelist and sometime film director James Clavell, wrote, directed, and produced this adaptation of J.B. Pick's novel, set during the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648. During the chaotic confrontations and shifting alliances of the war, a hidden valley protected from the outside world becomes Read More

1971
Where's Jack?

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tommy Steele, Stanley Baker, Fiona Lewis, Alan Badel, Dudley Foster

Synopsis: Jack Sheppard (Tommy Steele) is the locksmith's apprentice who is forced into highway robbery when he is betrayed by Jonathan Wild (Stanley Baker). Jack runs for his life and takes to a life of crime. He is captured but breaks out of jail, quickly becoming the subject of lore, legend and song. The Read More

1969
To Sir, With Love

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Sidney Poitier, Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Lulu, Adrienne Posta

Synopsis: Sidney Poitier, who in 1955 played a student in a tough inner-city high school, portrays a teacher assigned to a similar institution in To Sir, With Love. Unable to find work as an engineer, Poitier accepts a teaching post in London's East End slums. To reach his sullen, rebellious students Read More

1967
The Satan Bug

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, Ed Asner

Synopsis: Adapted from an Alistair MacLean novel, The Satan Bug is one of the best efforts in the "deadly virus at large" genre. Insane scientist Dr. Hoffman (Richard Basehart) steals several vials containing a lethal germ culture from a government lab. Hoffman has been unhinged by the notion of the Read More

1965
King Rat

Crew: Book Author

Actors: George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox, Patrick O'Neal, Denholm Elliott, John Mills, Todd Armstrong

Synopsis: James Clavell incorporated a few of his own experiences as a British POW in his novel King Rat. Bryan Forbes' film version stars George Segal as the mastermind of all black market operations in a Japanese prison camp. He is called "King Rat" because of his breeding of rodents to serve as food for Read More

1965
633 Squadron

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Maria Perschy, Harry Andrews, Donald Houston

Synopsis: Cliff Robertson and George Chakiris star in this dumbed-down version of The Guns of Navarone. During World War II, the story concerns a Scandinavian underground leader, Erik Bergman (George Chakiris), who reports to British authorities the location of a German V2 fuel plant. As is the case in most Read More

1964
The Great Escape

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, James Coburn

Synopsis: The Great Escape is based on the true story of a group of Allied prisoners of war who managed to escape from an allegedly impenetrable Nazi prison camp during World War II. At the beginning of the film, the Nazis gather all their most devious and troublesome POWs and place them at a new prison Read More

1963
Walk Like a Dragon

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jack Lord, Nobu McCarthy, James Shigeta, Mel Tormé, Benson Fong, Josephine Hutchinson

Synopsis: Cowboy Line Bartlett (Jack Lord) comes to San Francisco and meets Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy), a Chinese slave girl coveted by the manager of a whorehouse. To save her from this fate, Bartlett buys the girl himself and takes her home to serve as a housekeeper. His mother, Ma Bartlett (Josephine Hutchinson Read More

1960
Watusi

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: George Montgomery, Taina Elg, David Farrar, Rex Ingram, Dan Seymour

Synopsis: This flawed sequel uses footage that was cut from its precursor, King Solomon's Mines, along with repeats of a few scenes from that film, to construct a story about a return to Africa to look for the fabled mines. Harry Quartermain (George Montgomery) is the son of the man who first set out on the Read More

1959
Five Gates to Hell

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Neville Brand, Benson Fong, Ken Scott, John Morley, Patricia Owens

Synopsis: The celebrated author of 1975's Shogun, James Clavell, directs (and produced and wrote) this effective, if low-budget World War II drama. The story takes place in French Indochina (later Vietnam) where a group of two Red Cross doctors and seven nurses are captured by a guerrilla band and taken to Read More

1959
The Fly

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Vincent Price, Patricia Owens, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman

Synopsis: Wealthy Helene Delambre (Patricia Owens) is discovered late at night in the factory owned by her husband Andre (David Hedison). Helene stands beside a huge metal press, which has crushed the head and arm of her husband. Held for murder, the near-catatonic Helene refuses to tell anyone--not even Read More

1958