Tony Palmer
Directing
Born August 29, 1941 in London
Tony Palmer is a British film director and author. His work includes over 100 films, ranging from early works with The Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa (200 Motels), to his classical portraits which include profiles of Maria Callas, Margot Fonteyn, John Osborne, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Wagner, Yehudi Menuhin, Carl Orff, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He is also a stage director of theatre and opera. Among over 40 international prizes for his work are 12 Gold Medals from the New York Film Festival as well as numerous BAFTAs and Emmy Awards. Palmer has won the Prix Italia twice,for A Time There Was in 1980 and At the Haunted End of the Day in 1981. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an honorary citizen of both New Orleans and Athens.
Filmography
Richard Burton: Wild Genius
Self
Leonard Cohen: The Bird on a Wire Concerts
All We Got Was Love
Self
The Beatles And World War II
Vangelis: The Interviews
Frank Zappa - Freak Jazz, Movie Madness & Another Mothers
Self
Britten: Nocturne
The Piano Room
Staircases to Nowhere: Making Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
Himself - interviewee (2026 special edition)
Keep on Burning: The Story of Northern Soul
Self
Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard
Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter
Rope Ladder to the Moon
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire
The Wagner Family
Led Zeppelin: Dazed & Confused
Himself
O, Fortuna!
O Thou Transcendent: The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Tangerine Dream at Coventry Cathedral
Hail Bop! A Portrait of John Adams
Margot
Toward the Unknown Region: Malcolm Arnold - A Story of Survival
Hero: The Bobby Moore Story
Ladies & Gentlemen, Miss Renée Fleming
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
Parsifal: The Search for the Grail
The Kindness of Strangers
Rachmaninoff: The Harvest of Sorrow
The Fantastic World of Michael Crawford
Brahms and the Little Singing Girls
England, My England
Henryk Górecki: The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Menuhin, A Family Portrait
The Children
Hindemith: A Pilgrim's Progress
Testimony
In from the Cold? A Portrait of Richard Burton
The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels
Self
Code Name Vengeance
God Rot Tunbridge Wells!
Puccini
Wagner
Stravinsky: Once at a Border...
Death in Venice
At the Haunted End of the Day
The Space Movie
Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was…
Callas: A Documentary
The Wigan Casino
Mighty Good: The Beatles
All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music
Bernstein Mahler Rehearsal
Harriet at Play
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour ’74
The World of Miss World
Harriet At Butlins
The World of Liberace
Ginger Baker: In Africa
The World of Hugh Hefner
Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort
The Making of 200 Motels
Self
200 Motels
Performance.
Colosseum and Juicy Lucy
Will the Real Mr Sellers.....?
Cream: Farewell Concert
All My Loving
Benjamin Britten and His Festival
The Burning Fiery Furnace
Alice in Wonderland