Jack Gold
Jacob Michael Gold (28 June 1930 – 9 August 2015) was a British film and television director. He was part of the British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement.
Jack Gold
- Name
- Jack Gold
- Birth Name
- Jacob Michael Gold
- Born
- 28 June 1930
- Birthplace
- London, England
- Died
- 9 August 2015
- Occupation
- Director
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Fields
- film · television
- Education
- University College London
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Jacob Michael Gold (28 June 1930 – 9 August 2015) was a British film and television director. He was part of the British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Jack Gold. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q543700 · wikipedia · Jack Gold
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Jack Gold • Birth Name — Jacob Michael Gold • Born — 28 June 1930 • Birthplace — London, England • Died — 9 August 2015 • Place of death — London, England • Occupation — Director • Children — 3, including Nick
Career
Career
Jacob Michael Gold was born on 28 June 1930, in North London, the son of Charles and Minnie (née Elbery) Gold. He studied Economics and Law at University College London. After leaving UCL, he began his career as a film editor on the BBC's Tonight programme. Gold became a freelance documentary filmmaker, making dramas as a platform for his social and political observations. For television, his best known work is The Naked Civil Servant (1975), based on Quentin Crisp's 1968 book of the same name and starring John Hurt, which won the Grand Prize at the San Remo Film Festival. He had previously directed the 1964 crime series Call the Gun Expert for the BBC. Other television credits include The Visit (1959), the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of The Merchant of Venice (1980) and Macbeth (1983) - the latter starring Nicol Williamson - as well as the made-for-TV adaptation of Graham Greene's The Tenth Man (1988), starring Anthony Hopkins and Charlie Muffin (1979, USA: A Deadly Game). In 1998, he directed an award-winning-adaption of the 1981 children's book Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, featuring John Thaw in the lead. He also directed films such as The National Health (1973), Man Friday (1975), Aces High (1976), The Medusa Touch (1978), The Chain (1985) and Escape from Sobibor (1987). Gold directed the final episode of ITV's television detective drama Inspector Morse. Other work includes the television drama series Kavanagh QC and The Brief. Gold was an Honorary Associate of London Film School.
Personal life
Personal life
Gold married actress Denyse Alexander (née Macpherson) in 1957, with whom he shared a birthday - she was born in 1931. The couple had three children: Jamie, Kathryn and music producer Nick Gold.
Identity
Identity
Jack Gold is recorded as actor and director.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2015
Jack Gold died.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q543700: Jack Gold
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Jack Gold”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Gold, Jacob Myer (Jack) (1930–2015), film and television director, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2019
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2019
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Other sources
Other sources
• Aitken, Ian (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. New York: Routledge, 2005..
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Purser, Philip. Jack Gold obituary. The Guardian. 11 August 2015.
- 2.BBC. Goodnight Mister Tom director Jack Gold dies. August 12, 2015.
- 3.Jack Gold, film director - obituary. The Telegraph. 2015-08-17.
- 4.Filmreference.com. Jack Gold profile.
- 5.Jack Gold: Bafta-winning director of confrontational documentaries and touching dramas, including Goodnight Mister Tom. The Independent.
- 6.22nd London Film Festival programme. 46.
- 7.Ebert, Roger. Man Friday. Chicago Sun-Times. 12 March 1976.
- 8.Vagg, Stephen. Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation 1982-1997. Filmink. 11 September 2025.
- 9.Jack Gold.
- 10.Durán, Lucy. Nick Gold talks to Lucy Durán about the making of Buena Vista Social Club. soas.ac.uk. October 22, 2024.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Gold, Jacob Myer (Jack) (1930–2015), film and television director, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2019Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,589 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Jack ElamPerson
- Jack FiskPerson
- Jack FoxPerson
- Jack GarfeinPerson
- Jack HannahPerson
- Jack HarriesPerson
- Jack HarveyPerson
- Jack HawkinsPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Jack Gold?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.