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Bill Forsyth (born 29 July 1946, Glasgow) is a Scottish film director and writer, noted for his commitment to national film-making. Forsyth first came to attention with a low-budget film, That Sinking Feeling, made with youth theatre actors and featuring a cameo appearance by the Edinburgh gallery owner Richard Demarco. The relative success of the film was carried to a far higher level by his next film Gregory’s Girl in 1981. This featured some of the same young actors, in particular John Gordon Sinclair, as well as the acting debut of Clare Grogan. The film was a major hit and won ‘Best Screenplay’ in that year’s BAFTA Awards. In 1983 he wrote and directed the successful Local Hero, produced by David Puttnam, and featuring Burt Lancaster. It was rated in the top 100 films of the 1980s in a Premiere magazine recap of the decade. Forsyth’s next film was the 1984 Comfort and Joy, about a Glasgow radio DJ caught between rival ice cream companies, which again featured Clare Grogan. When Puttnam went to Hollywood, Forsyth followed, but had limited success. The 1987 Housekeeping was his first American film. Another movie, Being Human, was shelved by the studio for four years after Puttnam was ousted. Gregory’s Two Girls from 2000 appeared as a sequel to Gregory’s Girl, with John Gordon Sinclair playing the same character, but it received mixed reviews. In a June 2009 interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, Forsyth stated that he is currently working on a new film project with the working title of Exile.

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