Russell Mulcahy

Award-winning director of commercials and rock videos in the 1980s turned polished and proficient helmer of Hollywood genre movies. Mulcahy directed over 300 rock videos by 1983, including 15 starring Elton John and others featuring glitzy sets and costumes and fluid camerawork which highlighted Duran Duran, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac ("Gypsy") and Rod Stewart ("Young Turks"). He also made many TV commercials, including advertisements for HBO, Doritos, Miller Lite beer, Ford and British Petroleum. Mulcahy made his feature debut with the British-produced "Derek and Clive Get the Horn" (1980), starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and followed up with "Razorback" (1984), a galvanizing cult thriller about a killer pig set in the Australian outback.

Mulcahy achieved some measure of commercial success with the Sean Connery/Christopher Lambert fantasy vehicle, "Highlander" (1986), which yielded the disappointing sequel, "Highlander II: The Quickening" (1991). He next fashioned a slick urban thriller, "Richochet" (1991) starring Denzel Washington and John Lithgow, which seemed to set a pattern for his subsequent work. Teaming for the first time with producer Martin Bregman on the made-for-cable spy drama, "Blue Ice" (1992), Mulcahy reteamed with Bregman and stayed in character with the unsuccessful "The Real McCoy" (1993), a tale of a burglar starring Kim Basinger. Mulcahy's third teaming with Bregman, "The Shadow" (1994), was his most ambitious feature project to date. With a $45 million budget at his command, Mulcahy unleashed his video-bred stylishness on the period adventure thriller as he sought to bring the cult pulp-fiction figure Lamont Cranston to the screen.

• Born:
  June 23, 1953 in Melbourne, Australia
• Job Titles:
  Director, Director of photography, Editor

Milestones

• 1967 Taught himself to use a camera at age 14; began photographing and creating short films; first effort, "Vampire Island", shot with two friends until one of them fell off a cliff and broke his ankle; production unfinished (date approximate)
• 1978 Work was noticed by music video impresario John Roseman
• 1980 Directed first film, the United Kingdom production, "Derek and Clive Get the Horn"; also edited
• 1991 American feature directorial debut, "Highlander II: The Quickening"
• 1991 Made American TV directorial debut with "Split Second", an installment of the HBO horror anthology series, "Tales From the Crypt"
• 1992 First collaboration with producer Martin Bregman, "Blue Ice"
• 1994 Directed Alec Baldwin in "The Shadow" based on the 1930's comic strip
• 2000 Directed several episodes of the showtime series "Queer as Folk"
• 2004 Directed the "The Dale Earnhardt Story" (ESPN) which chronicles the legendary race car drive Dale Earnhardt, who died in 2001 during the last lap of the Daytona 500
• 2005 Directed the true story of Tony Fingleton, a young man from a troubled family who became a champion swimmer; starring Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis
• 2007 Helmed "Resident Evil: Extinction," the third installment in the series, starring Milla Jovovich
• Directed over 300 rock video by 1983, including "Young Turks" with Rod Stewart, "Gypsy" with Fleetwood Mac, and 15 for Elton John
• Made various TV commercials for Miller Lite, British Petroleum, Ford, Smirnoff Vodka, Opel Cars, Heinecken, Doritos and HBO