Robert Hamer

• Date of Birth:

  4 December 1911 Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England, UK

Robert Hamer was born in 1911, the son of the Welsh character actor Gerald Hamer (1886-1972). He was educated at Cambridge University where he wrote some poetry and was published in a collection 'Contemporaries and Their Maker', along with the spy Donald Maclean.Hamer's cinematic career began as a clapper boy at London Films in 1934, and by 1938 he was on the editing staff. He worked as an editor on Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (1939) (1939) and worked briefly for the GPO Film Unit... more

Robert Hamer was born in 1911, the son of the Welsh character actor Gerald Hamer (1886-1972). He was educated at Cambridge University where he wrote some poetry and was published in a collection 'Contemporaries and Their Maker', along with the spy Donald Maclean.Hamer's cinematic career began as a clapper boy at London Films in 1934, and by 1938 he was on the editing staff. He worked as an editor on Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (1939) (1939) and worked briefly for the GPO Film Unit. He joined Ealing in 1941 as an editor, becoming an associate producer in 1943. Hamer first made a name for himself as a director with the "The Haunted Mirror" segment in the 1945 omnibus film Dead of Night (1945).At Ealing, he directed one of the classic British comedies, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which Alec Guinness played eight roles. Hamer was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1949 Venice Film Festival for his work on the film, as he was in 1954 for directing Guiness in Father Brown (1954), which was based on G.K. Chesterton's short stories. (Hamer also also directed Guiness in the 1955 romantic comedy To Paris with Love (1955) at Rank and the 1959 thriller The Scapegoat (1959), which was based on the Daphne Du Maurier novel, for Du Maurier-Guiness/M.G.M.Robert Hamer's last directorial effort was 1960's _School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating! (1960)_ with 'Terry Thomas' and Alastair Sim. He died in London on December 4, 1963.